HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.

PREFACE.

THE author cannot better express the feelings which have prompted him to study and write the history of the Colony of New Haven, than by appropriating the following words of Dr. Trumbull: -

• " No man of genius and curiosity can read accounts of the origin of nations, the discovery, settlement, ijnd progress of new countries, without a high degree of entertainment. But in the settlement of his own country, in the lives of his ancestors^ in theu: adventures, morals, jurisprudence, and heroism, he feels himself particularly interested. He at once becomes a party in then- affairs, and travels and converses with them with a kind of filial delight. While he beholds them braving the horrors of the desert, the terrors of the savage, the distresses of famine and war, he admires their courage, and is pleased with all their escapes from danger, and all their progress in settlement, population, opulence, literature, and happiness."

Deeply interested in the early history of New Haven, he thought that by imparting the information which many desire, but few have leisure to glean from the wide field over which it is scattered, he might do some service to the community in which he lives. He feels assured that many descendants of the

Christian Englishmen.who first brought the light of civilization to these shores will be interested in his work. He hopes that some whose ancestors came hither at a later period, and others who though born in foreign lands have chosen New Haven as then- home, and learned to love it, will gkdly acquaint themselves with the men by whose toil and heroism this goodly heritage was cut out of a wilderness.

The fulness of the records, both of the town and of the colony of New Haven, makes it possible to present the first planters as, in large measure, the narrators of their own history. The author, preferring that they should speak for themselves, has made large extracts from their records and from other con temporary writings. The town records of New Haven for the first ten years are in print, and the manuscript records of the next sixteen years have been carefully read. The records of other towns within the colony, being less accessible to the author, have not been so thoroughly examined: they are, how ever, but meagre as compared with those of New Haven. Ralph D. Smith diligently searched those of Guilford, and Lambert those of Milford; and their, histories have been freely used.

' Introducing the fathers of the New Haven Colony, and forbearing for the most part both eulogy and censure, the author has left them to make, with their own words, such impression as they may. He does not conceal his admiration of them; he does not claim that they were faultless: he desires to present them just as they were.

His first thought was to allow every person to appear in his own orthography; but on further reflection, he concluded to give

a few specimens of the phonetic spelling of the seventeenth century, and then, by reducing all quotations to present usage, to deliver his readers from the difficulty of interpreting incident to the ancient lawlessness. Accordingly the certificate of conformity which Davenport received the first Sunday after his induction at St. Stephen's is printed on page 30 as it was written; as are also the first two documents in the Appendix.

In recording an event which took place between the first day of January and'the twenty-fifth day of March, the year has been' written according to New Style, or else both styles are given j but the days in a month are in all cases numbered according to the ancient computation. The use of Old Style as applied to days will occasion little if any trouble to the reader. Even if he forgets that, according to our way of reckoning, the event took place ten days later, his misconception will not be very important. But to record in Old Style an event which happened in the early part of the modern year, without intimating that the year needed correction, might seriously mislead.

Reference has not always been made to the original authority, in confirmation of a particular statement.. Such references' may be useful to the specialist, but when frequent are annoying to most readers. Public records have been sufficiently indicated as authority for information derived from that source, and any item acquired by gleaning from the collections of Historical Societies is definitely referred to the volume from which it was taken. But references to Winthrop's Journal, Hubbard's His-tory of New England, Mather's Magnalia, and Hutchinson's History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, have been for the most part omitted, for the reason that the specialist can readily

find whatever these writers have transmitted to us concerning any particular event.

To all who in answer to his inquiries have aided the author in the compilation -of this history, he presents his grateful acknowledgments. A special tribute is due to one who has passed suddenly and peacefully into 'the invisible world since this preface was begun. Henry White was, of all men, the most learned in antiquarian lore pertaining to New Haven. Other occupations obliged him to relinquish his long-cherished design of writing a topographical history of_ his native town; but historical inquiries were to the last his recreation and delight. He took a deep interest in the author's work as soon as he knew that it had been undertaken, encouraged him to believe that- it would be a pleasure to converse frequently concerning it, and on one occasion spent days in such a search of the land-records as only he was competent to make. In the last interview which the author had with him, he gave vocal expression to a desire already evident, exclaiming with animation, "I wish I could help you more."

NEW HAVEN, October, 1880.

CHAPTER I.

CONDITION OF ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, AS IT AFFECTED THE PURITAN EMIGRATION IN GENERAL.

THE MIGRATION to New England in the seventeenth century is to be attributed to the discomfort experienced by the English Puritans in their native land, rather than to any attractiveness in this transatlantic wilderness. It is difficult for those who. from their earliest remembrance have been surrounded with the security, beauty, and plenty enjoyed by the posterity of these colonists, to conceive of the same territory as it was seen by their ancestors when they arrived, or as it presented itself to the eye of imagination when they decided to emigrate. New England is to its present inhabitants their pleasant home; but the Englishmen, who in the seventeenth century were uncomfortable in England, loved England as their dear native land, and thought of America as a foreign country, and as such,

destitute of the attraction and charm which appertain to .the idea of home.

Moreover, emigration to the New World was not merely exile from a land they were reluctant to leave: it was exposure to suffering by cold and hunger, to peril of death by shipwreck, by wild beasts, and by treacherous savages. Such liabilities are, indeed, not unattractive to men in whom the love of adventure predominates; but the English Puritans were in general as free from that restlessness of mind which seeks relief in excitement as any people in the world. Their theology furnishing a central Being whom they acknowledged as infinitely their superior, they were content to rest in him, and so had inward peace. Religion, inclining them to sobriety and industry, fostered the love of home, of security, and of comfort. Individuals among them may have been susceptible to the love of adventure; but, as a class, the planters of New England were not men naturally inclined to desert their homes, and expose themselves to hardships and perils on the ocean and in the wilderness. On the contrary, their training had been such as inclined them to remain in their native land. This, is true, even of the unmarried men; but the reluctance to emigrate was, of course, far greater when one must expose wife and children to hardships they were less able than himself to endure.

If the settlement of New England had been the result of mere adventure, its history would have had so little connection with that of the mother-country, that its relation might properly commence with the first arrival of colonists; but actually there is such a continuity of history between the emigration and the

influences which led to it as requires the historian of a New England colony to discourse of England more than the mere title of his work would seem to justify. To relate the history of New Haven, therefore, one must go back to an earlier date than its actual settlement.

The contest between arbitrary and constitutional government, which had never ceased in England after King John signed the Magna Charta, raged with unusual violence while the throne was occupied by the Stuarts. The reign of the Tudors had been a period of comparative rest; the Wars of the Roses having so weakened the great barons, who in earlier times made and deposed kings at their pleasure, and the introduction of artillery having so strengthened the monarch against an enemy destitute of these engines of destruction, that, from Henry the Seventh to Elizabeth, there was but faint resistance to the will of the sovereign by , the hereditary lords who sat in the upper house of Parliament. By the transfer of the supremacy of the Church, another check on. the royal prerogative had been removed; so that the lords spiritual, who in the olden time had been as little dependent on the king as the lords temporal, were now subservient to the power which placed them in office. The Tudors, therefore, transmitted to their successors a more arbitrary sceptre than had been wielded by earlier kings.

But the time of the Stuarts was less favorable than that of the Tudors for maintaining a theory and practice of government which contravened the rights of the subject. Formerly the great barons had come to Par-

liament followed by hundreds of archers and spearmen ready to back their lords in any contest which might occur; but the barons only, and not their retainers, had presumed to put to question the conduct of the overlord. Out of the decay of this feudal baronage, there had gradually grown up a new antagonist to despotism, which, exhibiting considerable power in the reign of Elizabeth, vigorously encountered the house of Stuart at its accession, and suffered no permanent defeat till it had brought a king of England to the scaffold.

The change in the tenure of land whereby the vassal had become a farmer and in some instances a freeholder; the growth of towns by the increase of manufactures and of commerce; the intellectual activity awakened by the revival of learning, by the new art of printing, by the reform in theology, and by the revolutionary transfer of the supremacy of the Church,-had conspired to lift the common people into a higher position. With this elevation of the common people, the House of Commons rose in importance. The shires and towns, which originally were invited to send representatives to Parliament, that through them they might give consent to taxes which the king wished to levy not only upon the greater lords, but upon the whole population, at first sent men, who, having no ambition to figure as legislators, gladly retired to their homes as soon as they had voted the supplies required. But consent to taxation was sometimes accompanied with a statement of grievances; and afterward, when the Commons had grown in power and courage, was withholden till a promise of redress had been obtained. At first the Commons were content if laws were enacted by the

royal authority in accordance with their petitions, but afterward required that the order of proceeding should be reversed, so that all legislation must originate and receive its final shape in Parliament.

Whatever resistance had been offered to arbitrary government during the reign of the Tudors, had proceeded, not chiefly, as in earlier times, from the House of Lords, but chiefly from the House of Commons, representing a power already great and constantly increasing. There had been a change, moreover, in the mode in which acts of despotism were resisted; for the king no longer found his subjects arrayed in arms against him, but meeting him, whenever he asked for another supply of money, with a demand for further restriction on his prerogative. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, found this disposition of the Commons so annoying, that she avoided, as much as possible, giving occasion for such conflicts; well knowing that the Crown, if dependent on Parliament for supplies, could obtain them only by concession. By avoiding as much as possible the waste of war, by conducting into her exchequer every stream of tribute which could be controlled without the aid of the Commons, she hoped to render herself independent of Parliaments, and would probably have succeeded but for the wars forced upon her, in the last half of her reign, by Mary of Scotland and Philip of Spain.

This new antagonist to arbitrary government, which had become somewhat formidable to the last of the Tudors, continued to increase in courage and strength under her successor. But not only was the age in which the Stuarts reigned less favorable than that of the

Tudors to the theory and practice of arbitrary government, but the two families differed in their ability to cope "with this new antagonist as much as their respective eras differed in the kind of ability required. If the two families could have changed places, the Stuarts might perhaps have been competent to deal with such Parliaments as assembled in the reign of Henry the Seventh; and the Tudors would certainly have shown more tact than the Stuarts did in contending against the English people of the seventeenth century.

This contest between the Stuarts and the English people, on account of its bearing on emigration to New England and the commencement of a new colony at New Haven, we shall briefly review.

James the First ascended the throne of Elizabeth in the belief that by the ordinance of God he was entitled to govern without regard to the will of his subjects. He had already declared, in his work on " The True Law of Free Monarchy," that, " although a good king will frame his actions to be according to law, yet he is not bound thereto but of his own will and for example-giving, to his subjects." At a later date, he said in a speech in the Star-Chamber, "As it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is presumption and a high contempt in a subject, to dispute what a king can do, or to say that a king cannot don this or that." Some writers attribute to him, and some to his son Charles, the saying, " I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will." If James did not originate, he would doubtless have been willing to adopt, this form of words.

But, though the new king was known to entertain such a theory of kingship, he was received by those of his subjects who held the opposite sentiments with joy and hope; for he was no more objectionable in this respect than Elizabeth, and they-confidently expected that he would so exercise his prerogative as to relieve them from one of the most galling of their burdens. The Tudors had transferred the supremacy of the Church from the pope to the king, but had shown themselves as arbitrary in their ecclesiastical as in their civil supremacy, legislating without the concurrence of clergy or laity, and enforcing the strictest conformity, to the established ritual. The spirit in which Elizabeth ruled the Church may be inferred from the note she sent to the Bishop of Ely, when he demurred to a proposal that he should surrender a portion of Jus garden because a favorite of the queen desired that site for a new palace. '"Proud prelate," she wrote, "you know what you were before I made you what you are. If you do not immediately comply with my request, by God, I will unfrock you." With similar tyranny she had refused every application for the relief of persons who had scruples in regard to some of the ceremonies prescribed in the ritual of the Church. These Puritans hoped, that as James had been educated in Scotland, where the Church itself had controlled its own reformation, and had carried the reform farther than the Tudors had been willing to carry it in the Church of England, they should find the new king friendly to their wish for further progress in the work of amendment. Possibly, if they had been of the same political principles with the king, they might have ob-tained some concessions. .

But he well knew that the Puritans were to a man of the popular party, and constituted its strength, and that on the other hand the opponents of further reform in the Church were supporters of the royal prerogative. His choice between the parties was soon made, and at the Hampton Court Conference, in the first year of his reign, was fully declared. In his journey from Scotland, a petition signed by eight hundred and twenty-five English clergymen from twenty-five counties had been presented to him, asking for a conference in regard to ecclesiastical abuses. In response to this petition, four of the leading Puritan divines, selected by 'the king, were invited to meet some dignitaries of the Church opposed to all change, in a conference before the king as moderator. But the conference was so conducted as to show that the king had already decided the matter adversely to the Puritans. The first day they were not admitted to his presence, the time being spent in preliminary consultation between the king and th6 bishops. On the second day, .after the Puritans had stated their case, and their opponents had replied, the king, forgetting his position as moderator, took up the argument for conformity, and so " peppered " the Puritans, to use his own expression, that they were dismayed and put to silence.

All that the petitioners could obtain, as the result of this conference, was that candidates for confirmation should be previously instructed by means of a catechism to be prepared for that purpose, that a new translation of the Scriptures should be provided, that the Apocrypha should be distinguished from the canonical Scriptures, that a few explanatory words should be in-

serted in the Articles of Religion, and that the enforcement of uniformity might be delayed to give time for the resolution of doubt and the settlement of conviction.

In his interview with the bishops, previous to the admission of the Puritan clergymen, the king had propounded the prejudice he himself entertained against private baptism by persons not in orders, and the Churchmen had consented that it should be restricted to cases of necessity. His own objection to conformity to the Church of England being thus taken away, he had no regard to the scruples of others. As between the two Churches of England and of Scotland, he avowed his preference for the former, narvely admitting that the preference issued from his political principles, rather than from his religious convictions. "No bishop," said he, " no king." " A Scottish presbytery agreeth as well with monarchy as God with the devil."

But James had no occasion for instituting such a comparison in reply to the petitioners ; for the petition expressly disavowed a wish for "parity," and asked only for changes not affecting the constitution of the Church. The Puritans had not yet become disaffected toward episcopacy; and, if James had granted them relief from the grievances mentioned in their petition, there would have been less of extravagance in the flattery of the courtiers who styled him the Scottish Solomon. As it was, he resembled Rehob'oam rather than Solomon ; driving the Puritans into such hostility to prerogative, both royal and episcopal, that nothing less would content them than "a church without a bishop, and a state without a king." It appears from

" Certain Considerations Touching the Better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England," written by Lord Bacon, and "dedicated to his most excellent majesty," that James, like Rehoboam, came to his decision in opposition to wise counsel. Bacon says, " These ecclesiastical matters are things not properly appertaining to my profession; but finding that it is in many things seen that a man that standeth off and somewhat; removed from a plot of ground doth better survey it and, discover it than those which are upon it, I thought it not impossible, but that I, as a looker-on, might cast mine eyes upon some things which the actors themselves, especially some being interested, .some being led and addicted, some declared and engaged, did not or would not see." He inquires, " Why the civil state should be purged and restored by good and wholesome laws made every third or fourth year in parliament assembled, devising remedies as .fast as time breedeth mischief; and contrariwise the ecclesiastical state should still continue upon the dregs of time, and receive no alteration now for these five and forty years or more. But if it be said to me that there is a difference between civil causes and ecclesiastical, they may as well tell me that churches and chapels need no reparations, though castles and houses do: whereas, commonly, to speak truth, dilapidations of the inward and spiritual edifications of the church of God are in all times as great as the outward and material."

The first parliament in the reign ,of the new king met a few weeks after the conference at Hampton Court. A majority of the lower house were in full sympathy with the Puritan clergy in desiring further reformation

of the Church; and some who were personally indifferent to the ceremonies and other matters in controversy were disposed to side with the aggrieved party, either on the ground that rings, surplices, and crosses were important to those who esteemed them important, or that, by favoring the Puritans, they might obtain from them more aid in the impending contest between the Crown and the Commons. The speaker, in his first address to the king, took occasion to affirm that " by the power of your majesty's great and high court of parliament only, new laws are to be instituted, imperfect laws reformed, and inconvenient laws abrogated;" that " no such law can be instituted, reformed, or abrogated, but by the unity of the Commons' agreement, the Lords' accord, and your majesty's royal and regal assent;" tha,t " this court standeth compounded of two * powers; the one ordinary, the other absolute: ordinary in the Lords' and Commons' proceedings, but in your highness absolute, either negatively to frustrate or affirmatively to confirm, but not to institute."

In making up the roll of the House, it was found that the king had already decided that one of the persons returned as elected was ineligible, and had ordered a new election, so that there were two claimants of the seat. The House insisted on its privilege of determining its own membership in all cases of contested elections, but compromised with the king by excluding both claimants with the consent of the first chosen, and ordering a third election. With great copiousness of courteous speech they established so firmly the privilege of the House to determine contested elections, that it has never since been brought in question.

On the 13th of June, a committee reported a form for a petition to his majesty, in which they say, "We have thought it expedient, rather by this our humble petition to recommend to your majesty's godly consideration certain matters of grievance resting in your royal power and princely zeal, either to abrogate or moderate, than to take the public discussing of the same unto ourselves; to the end (if it so seem good to your highness) we may from the sacred fountain of your majesty's most royal and religious heart, wholly and only derive such convenient remedy and relief therein as to your princely wisdom may seem most meet. The matters of grievance (that we be not troublesome to your majesty) are these: the pressing the use of certain rites and ceremonies in this Church, as the cross in baptism, the wearing of the surplice in ordinary parish churches, and the subscription required of the ministers further than is commanded by the laws of the realm; things which, by long experience, have been found to be the occasion of such difference, trouble, and contention in this Church, as thereby divers profitable and painful ministers, not in contempt of authority or desire of novelty, as they sincerely profess and we are verily persuaded, but upon conscience toward God, refusing the same, some of good desert have been deprived, others of good expectation withheld from entering into the ministry." It is not certain that this petition was ever presented to the king; but he must have known that it was on the way, when, on the 26th of the same month, he sent a letter to the House declining to receive a subsidy, which all the world knew would be granted only in return for the redress of grievances.

13 Meantime the House had sent to the king a letter styled "An Apology Touching Their Privileges," in which they complain, with great copiousness of respectful language, of the wrong which had been done to his majesty by misinformation, touching the estate of his subjects and the privileges of the House, and " disclosing unto your majesty the truth of such matters as hitherto by misinformation hath been suppressed or perverted."

On the 7th of July the House was prorogued; and when it again assembled in Ndvember, 1605, the discovery of the gunpowder-plot had hushed the strife between the Puritans and the king, uniting all Protestants in a common enmity against Papists. But in subsequent sessions the Commons found so many grievances to be redressed before supplies could be granted, that the king preferred to dissolve the Parlia-\nent in February, 1611, rather than fill his exchequer by further sacrifices of his prerogative.

In April, 1614, having first by private negotiation secured a promise of aid from some who had been leaders of the popular party, the king ventured to call his second Parliament, but the experiment proved a failure; the Commons, even after the king had sent a message requesting that a supply might be granted and threatening to dissolve the Parliament if they refused, voting to postpone supply till their grievances were redressed. The Parliament was accordingly dissolved just two months after it began to sit.

The Parliament which assembled in January, 1621, was at first on good terms with the monarch, who in the opening speech, acknowledging that he had been misled by evil counsellors, made fair promises for the

future. The two parties were drawn together by their common sympathy with the king's son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, involved in a quarrel with the German emperor, which threatened to deprive him of his hereditary dominions. The king naturally desired to assist the husband of his daughter and the father of her children to preserve his patrimony; and the people sympathized with the elector as the champion of Protestantism, overborne by the combined forces of Romanism. The Commons at once voted supplies for carrying on war in aid of the elector. But, before the expiration of the year, the king and the Commons were again at variance ; he rebuking them* for meddling with matters of state which did not concern them, and declaring himself "very free and able to punish any man's misdemeanors in Parliament, as well during their sitting as after;" and they responding with a formal protest as follows : viz., "That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the subjects of England; and that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the king, state, and the defence of the realm and of the Church of England, and the making and maintenance of laws and redress of mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this realm, are proper subjects and matter of counsel and debate in Parliament ; and that, in the handling and proceeding of those businesses, every member of the House hath, and of right ought to have, freedom of speech to propound, treat, reason, and bring to conclusion the same ; that the Commons in Parliament have like liberty and freedom to treat of these matters in such order as in their judg-

ments shall seem fittest; and that every such member of the said House hath like freedom from all impeachment, imprisonment, and molestation (other than by the censure of the House itself), for or concerning any bill, speaking, reasoning, or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parliament or Parliament business; and that, if any of the said members be complained of and questioned for any thing said or done in Parliament, the same is to be showed to the king, by the advice and assent of all the Commons, before the king give credence to any private informations."

This formal protest having been recorded in the journal of the House, the king erased it with his own hand, and a few days afterward dissolved the Parliament.

The next Parliament met in February, 1624, was prorogued in May, and did not again assemble, being dissolved by the king's death on the 27th of March, 1625. During its brief session, unusual concord prevailed between the king and the Commons, by reason of war with Spain, which religious animosity rendered popular ; and the more so, that the war had been preceded by an apprehension that a Spanish princess would become the wife of the heir to the British crown. The Commons voted large supplies for carrying on the war, and with the more alacrity, because the king had himself proposed that the money should be put into the hands of a committee of Parliament, to be expended by them, and not into the royal exchequer.

Charles the First was constrained by his need of money to call a Parliament immediately upon his accession, but soon quarrelled with the Commons, as his 16

father had done, about his prerogative and their privileges. Putting an end to their sessions, he called another Parliament in the succeeding year, but with no improvement in the state of feeling between the king and the Commons; and in a few months the second Parliament of this reign came to an end. The king, left without revenue by the refusal of Parliament to vote supplies, not only laid and collected arbitrary taxes, but exacted from the nobility, the gentry, the clergy, and the merchants, forced loans. Those who refused to lend were imprisoned, and, when they claimed their liberty by habeas corpus, found that Magna Charta was of no avail against the will of the king.

In this state of things, Charles called his third Parliament in 1628 ; being constrained to such a course by the insufficiency of the revenue collected by illegal means. When the Commons assembled on the i7th of March, they came with the determination not to vote supplies unless the king would promise to put an end to his arbitrary measures. Early in the session, they passed the following resolutions, without a dissenting voice: -

" I. That no freeman ought to be committed or detained in prison, or otherwise restrained, by command of the king, or the Privy Council, or any other, unless some cause of the commitment, detainer, or restraint be expressed, for which by law he ought to be committed, detained, or restrained. 2. That the writ of habeas corpus cannot be denied, but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by command of the king, Privy Council, or any other; he praying the same. 3. That if a freeman

be committed, or detained in prison, or otherwise restrained, by command of the king, Privy Council, or any other, no cause of such commitment, &c., being expressed, and the same, be returned upon an habeas corpus granted for the said party, that then he ought to be delivered, or bailed. 4. That the ancient and undoubted right of every freeman is, that he hath a full and absolute property in his goods and estate; and that no tax, tallage, loan, benevolence, or other like charges, ought to be commanded or levied by the king or his ministers, without common assent of Parliament."

A few days after this declaration of the right of English subjects, they presented a petition to the king, in which they showed how all these rights of the subject had been recognized in Magna Charta, and in acts of Parliament subscribed by his majesty's royal predecessors ; declared that they had all been violated of late by forced loans, by imprisonment without cause shown, by disregard of the writ of habeas corpus, by billeting soldiers and mariners in private houses, and by the unnecessary establishment of martial law. The petition closed with a prayer that such illegalities and wrongs might cease.

The answer of the king was regarded as evasive; and both houses of Parliament joined in a request that his majesty would return a more explicit reply to the Petition of Right. Charles, thus harassed, came into the-House of Lords, commanded the Commons to attend upon him there, and gave his assent to the petition in the customary form, declaring that in his former answer he had had no intention of withholding any thing conceded in the latter. Three days later, to accelerate a

vote of supplies, he expressed his willingness that the Petition of Right should be recorded, not only in both houses of Parliament, but in all the courts of Westminster, and that it should be printed for his honor, and the content and satisfaction of his subjects.

The Commons, pleased with such a triumph of law over autocracy, immediately voted a liberal sum for supplying the king's necessities, and were proceeding to pass an act for a further supply by a grant of tonnage and poundage, when the incorrigible Stuart, learning that the grant was to be accompanied by a remonstrance against the illegal collection' of the tax before it had been granted, prorogued the Parliament in a speech in which he denied that in giving assent to the Petition of Right he had debarred himself from exacting tonnage and poundage by virtue of his royal prerogative, and commanded all present to take notice, that the interpretation he was giving to the instrument was its true meaning and intent; adding, " But especially you, my lords the judges, for to you only, under me, belongs the interpretation of laws." After the prorogation this violent speech was, by the king's command, entered on the journal of the House; and by the same authority it was printed along with the Petition of Right and the unsatisfactory answer it had at, first received, no mention being made of the explicit assent afterward given in the customary formula of royal ratification.

When the Parliament again assembled on the 2Oth of January, 1629, the nation was greatly irritated, not only by the collection of tonnage and poundage and other illegal taxes, but by the excessive and cruel punishments

discovered that in the negotiations for the marriage of Charles with Henrietta Maria, both he and his father had secretly signed a promise that not only the queen and her attendants, but all Englishmen as well, should be exempt from the operation* of the laws of England which prohibited the exercise of the Roman Catholic worship. It was seen that the Church of England, under the direction of Laud, was drifting'toward the Church of Rome, and thus becoming more unsatisfactory to Puritans than it had been under the administration of Abbott. The latter prelate had been lenient toward those who had conscientious scruples about cere-monies : taud, on the other hand, not only exacted the most rigid conformity to the ceremonies legally required, but procured an order of the king's privy council, ordaining changes in the position and furniture" of the communion-table, exceedingly unpalatable to those who already experienced sufficient difficulty in overcoming their scruples and persuading themselves to conform.

On the 25th of February a committee previously appointed for the purpose made a report on religious grievances. They complained, among other things, that books in favor of popery were licensed by the bishops, and books against popery were suppressed; that candlesticks were placed on the communion-table, which they said was now wickedly called a high altar; that pictures, images, and lights were used in the worship of the Church; that clergymen celebrating divine service crossed themselves at every change of posture, and in time of prayer turned their backs toward the people, as if the eastward position were essential; that, these ritualistic practices being enjoined upon them by their bishops, learned,

PURITAN EMIGRATION IN GENERAL. 21 orthodox, and pious ministers, who could not in conscience obey the injunction, were brought to grief for disobedience.

The king, enraged at this attack upon his hierarchical allies, endeavored to prevent action on the report by ordering the speaker to pronounce the House adjourned. But, the House claiming that it could be adjourned only by its own act, some of the members held the speaker in the chair, while others locked the door, and brought the keys to the table. The speaker declaring that he dare not and would not put to vote any motion, seeing that the House was adjourned by the king's command, one of the members read a protest to which others assented, and the House then adjourned itself to the l0th of March. On the loth of March the king dissolved the Parliament, in a speech in which he threatened with his vengeance those vipers, as he called them, who had been most active in resisting his adjournment of the House of Commons.

His third Parliament being thus brought to an end, Charles was by this time so disgusted, that in a proclamation issued twelve days afterward he said, "We.have showed, by our frequent meeting our people, our love to the use of Parliaments; yet, the late abuse having for the present driven us unwillingly out of that course, we shall account it presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us for Parliaments, the calling, continuing, and, dissolving of which is always in our power." So deep-rooted was his dislike, that eleven years intervened be tween his third and his fourth Parliaments, during which time he levied taxes, and exacted benevolences and loans at his pleasure, punishing with imprisonment and heavy

fines those who refused to open their purses at his arbitrary demand.

The Puritan emigration from England, for which we are endeavoring to account, commenced while Charles was holding his third Parliament. Plymouth had, indeed, been settled before this time and before Charles came to the throne; but the Pilgrims who planted that colony had been already exiles from their native land for twelve years before they crossed the ocean. The successful prosecution of that enterprise for eight years had now demonstrated the feasibility of establishing such plantations on the American coast, and had suggested to the Puritans oi England that by emigrating to America they might not only escape from their foes, but establish, in a new world, those principles of civil freedom and pure worship for which they were contending with little success in their native-land.

The first company who left their homes in the mother-country to establish a Puritan plantation in New England sailed in 1628, and, under the leadership of Endi-cott, established themselves at Salem. They had been twice re-enforced, when a much larger company came with Winthrop in 1630, and settled first at Charles-town, and afterward at Boston. To induce Winthrop and other gentlemen of capacity and wealth to engage personally in this enterprise, the Company of Massachusetts Bay generously offered to transfer to New England the government of the plantations which had been or might be formed there, by electing a majority of its directors and its governor from among those who would engage to emigrate with their families and estates.

From this time onward the current of emigration was broad and rapid, stimulated as well by the descriptions of the New World which the first adventurers sent back as by the troubles in the mother-country. So general was the interest in these reports that three editions of "New England's Plantation" by Rev. Francis Higginson, who arrived in Salem in 1629, were printed during the following year. The stream thus set in motion did not cease to flow till the civil war had given the Puritans hope of relief without exile from their native land.

The project which resulted in the establishment of a colony at New Haven was undertaken in 1636. Seven years had then elapsed without a parliament; the king was evidently determined not to call another: without a parliament no check could be put on arbitrary government. To all other illegal methods of replenishing the exchequer, including the sale of monopolies, the demand of loans and benevolences, the collection of tonnage and poundage, the imposition of arbitrary and excessive fines, another had now been added called ship-money; the first writ for levying it in London being issued in 1634, and the exaction being extended to the whole country in the following year. The tax was small in amount; for John Hampden (who, having already suffered imprisonment for not submitting to a forced loan, now refused to pay ship-money) was a man of large wealth, and yet was assessed at only twenty shillings. But, though small in amount, this new tax excited earnest indignation in the minds of thoughtful patriots, because it was laid without the consent of those who were to pay it.

The Star-Chamber, instead of relaxing its severity, had of late in numerous instances punished with ruinous fines, and with imprisonment of which no one could foresee the end, those who resisted the exactions of the government, or even ventured to speak of them with too strong disapproval. Thus in 1630, Richard Chambers, a merchant of London, smarting urider a sense of the wrong he suffered in having a bale of silk confiscated because he would not pay the duty illegally demanded, was heard to say that merchants had more encouragement, and were less screwed and wrung, in Turkey than in England. For this ebullition of temper he was fined two thousand pounds. In the same year Alexander Leighton, a Scotch clergyman, was sentenced, for publishing a book entitled, " An Appeal to the Parliament ; or, Sion's Plea against Popery," to be twice publicly whipped, to stand two hours in the pillory, to have his ears cut off, to have his -nostrils slit, to be branded in the cheek with the letters S.S. to denote a sower of sedition, and to be imprisoned for life. He lay in prison ten years, and until he was released by the Long Parliament. In 1634 Prynne, a Puritan lawyer, being prosecuted before the same tribunal for publishing a book against plays, masquerades, &c., which was thought to reflect severely upon the royal court where such amusements were in vogue, was sentenced to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, to stand twice in the pillory, to lose his ears, and to remain a prisoner for life. He employed the leisure of his prison in writing another book, for which he suffered, by decree of the Star-Chamber, another mutilation. This second punishment, however, did not take place till after the com-

pany, which planted the colony of New Haven, had left behind them the shores of England.

The High Commission, which had cognizance of ecclesiastical offences, punished the Puritans for disobedience to bishops, as the Star-Chamber did for offences against the royal prerogative. This tribunal did not, indeed, mutilate its victims, and so far forth was less inhuman than the Star-Chamber. The fines which it exacted from non-conformists for their irregularities were not so large as the fines imposed by the other-court, or by this same court in cases of immorality committed by rich men; but the reason doubtless was, that the non-conformists were men of moderate means. Those who suffered for non-conformity were, in many cases, clergymen withqut income save what they derived from their benefices. To such a man, the sentence *of the ecclesiastical court, ejecting him from his living, was as severe as a ruinous fine would be upon a merchant. But, in truth, fines and imprisonment were often added to the sentence of deprivation which took from the clergyman and his family their daily bread. For example, Peter Smart, a prebendary of Durham, having inveighed in a sermon against innovations recently made in his cathedral, such as the change of the communion-table into an altar, and the restoration of some images and pictures which had been removed in the reign of Elizabeth, was fined five hundred pounds, committed to prison, and ordered to recant. For neglecting to recant, he was fined again, deprived of his prebend, degraded from orders, and excommunicated.1. He was at last released by the Long Parliament, after eleven years confinement.

1 Fuller's Church History.

The elevation of Laud to the primacy, in 1633, increased the troubles of the Puritans. Abbot had shielded them in his own diocese, and had encouraged, at least indirectly, other bishops to do likewise. But now there was no such shield in any diocese from the fury with which Laud assailed, not only all who deviated in any particular from the ceremonies prescribed by law, but even those who, being careful to conform in all things legally required, opposed the change's in the furniture, and services of the church, ordained by the Privy Council at the instigation of Laud. Puritan clergymen in larger numbers than before were imprisoned. Some, having reason to expect a similar fate, concealed themselves and, when opportunity offered, secretly embarked for New England. It was under pressure of this kind that most o'f the ministers who came over between 1628 and 1640 decided to leave their native land.

Though the clergy were more exposed than the laity to the storm of persecution, the latter were not exempt. If the spies of the High Commission discovered a conventicle, - as a worshipping assembly in which the ceremonies did riot -conform to those of the Church of England was called,-not only the officiating minister, but all who were present, were seized, and imprisoned till on their oaths they had purged themselves of all non-conformity, or till the court was pleased to release .them.

Such was the condition of England which induced the Puritan emigrants to exile themselves from their native country, and encounter the perils of the'sea and of the wilderness. Colonization produced by such

causes peopled New England with a superior population. The colonists were, as a class, intelligent, moral, religious, heroic. " God. sifted a whole nation, that he might send choice grain over into this wilderness."*

* William Stoughton, Election Sermon, 1668.

CHAPTER II.

EVENTS WHICH INFLUENCED SOME OF THE FIRST PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN TO REMOVE FROM THEIR NATIVE LAND TO NEW ENGLAND.

O N the sixth day of October, 1624, a general vestry was holden in St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, London, for the election of a new incumbent; this being one of the few parishes in England where the right of presentation is vested in the parishioners. Of seventy-three votes, John Davenport, a curate in a contiguous parish, received all but three or four. He had held this curacy about six years, and was now regarded as one of the ablest preachers in the city. " He was reported," says the Bishop of London, in reply to a letter in which Sir Richard Conway interceded for Davenport's induction, "to be factious and popular,1 and to draw after him great congregations and assemblies of common and mean people." Endowed with imagination, earnest in his piety, Calvinistic in his theology,-possessing the full strength of manhood with no abatement of the fervor of youth, he was a great favorite with the merchants, tradesfolk, and artisans, whose dwellings were in Coleman Street and other

1 The bishop meant that Davenport did not stand for the king's prerogative. 29

streets since surrendered entirely to business. His admirers were almost universally of that class of Englishmen whose representatives in Parliament so much displeased King James by presenting a list of grievances whenever he asked for money. Therefore to be popular, whether it means to be on- the side of the people or to be regarded by the people with favor, was to be suspected at court.

It was soon found that something stood in the way of Davenport's induction. The young preacher had been traduced to the king as a Puritan, or as puritanically affected; and the king had spoken of him to the bishop of London in such terms that the bishop was unwilling to induct him into the benefice to which he had been elected. The charge pf puritanism, if it meant that Davenport did not conform to all the prescribed cere-monies of the Church, had no foundation at this early date. The accusation had probably proceeded from one of the king's pages, who, having been reproved by Davenport for profane swearing, either innocently adjudged him for that reason to be a Puritan, or revengefully applied an opprobrious epithet to prejudice his reprover in the king's esteem.

Davenport's friends, however, were not all " common and mean people." At his solicitation, seconded by that of Lady Mary Vere, his cause was undertaken by her brother-in-law Sir Richard Conway, principal secretary to his majesty) who conciliated the king, and persuaded the bishop to proceed to the induction, which took place before the date of the following certificate, indorsed in the handwriting of Davenport on a copy of "The Thirty-Nine Articles," now in the library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester: -

" Novemb. 7th 1624 "John Davenporte, Clerk, Vicar of St Stephen's in Coleman Street, London, did, this day above written, being Sunday, pub-liquely read this booke of Articles herein Contayned, being in number 39 besides the ratification, and declared his full and unfeigned assent and consent thereunto in the tyme of morning Prayer, next after the Second Lesson, before the whole Congre-gacion. As also the sayd John did, the same day, administer the Holy Communion in the sayd parish, in his surplis, according to ye order prescribed by ye Church of England; in the presence of these whbse names are here underwritten."

The certificate is signed by one of the church-wardens and seven other parishioners, and was doubtless given on the first Sunday after his -induction.

The first two or three years of Davenport's incumbency were prosperous and comparatively peaceful. So far as can be ascertained, he conformed as faultlessly as in his curacy at St. Lawrence's, where, as he declares in a letter to Secretary Conway, he " baptized many, but never without the sign of the cross ; monthly administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but at no time without the surplice, nor to any but those that kneeled."

In 1627 he brought himself into trouble by uniting with other ministers in a circular letter soliciting contributions for the oppressed Protestants of the Upper Palatinate. Laud, who was now the principal adviser of the king, was displeased with the signers of the letter for such sympathy with Presbyterians, and caused them to be reprimanded in the Star-Chamber.

The translation of Laud in 1628, to the see of London, brought greater peril of collision between him and the Calvinistic vicar of St. Stephen's. What was Daven-

port's first offence, is not known; but how soon he was summoned before the High Commission, appears from the following extract from one of his letters to Lady Vere:--

" LONDON, June'30, 1628.

" MADAM, - Since my recovery out of a dangerous sickness, which held me for a week or a fortnight before Shrovetide to as long after Easter, for which I return most humble thanks to the God of my life, the Father of mercies, I have had divers purposes of writing to your honor, only I delayed in hope to write somewhat concerning the event and success of our High Commission troubles; but I have hoped in vain: for to this day we are, in the same condition as before,-delayed till the finishing of this session in Parliament, which now is unhappily concluded without any satisfying contentment to the king or commonwealth. Threatenings were speedily revived against us by the new Bishop of London, Dr. Laud, even the next day after the conclusion of their session. We expect a fierce storm from the enraged spirit of the two bishops. vOurs, as I am informed, hath a particular aim at me upon a former quarrel: so that I expect ere long to be deprived of my pastoral charge in Coleman Street But I am in God's hands, not in theirs; to whose good pleasure I do contentedly and cheerfully commit myself.1"

In January, 1631, he was required to answer certain charges brought against him by Timothy Hood, some time his curate. Hood had been dismissed for not complying with the requirement that .he should reside within the parish, and, according to Davenport's relation of the case, had become incensed against him for that reason. One of the charges was, that the vicar had sometimes administered the sacrament to communicants who did not kneel, and the accusation was brought to a fine edge by the specification of Mrs. Davenport as one of the said communicants.

1 Birch MSS., 4275 32

The vicar replied to this objection against him, that the parish contained about fourteen hundred communicants, and that, the chancel being small, it was a matter of necessity to administer to the communicants from pew to pew, and that the pews were sometimes so filled that it was impossible to kneel; that when he had observed some to sit, that might conveniently kneel, he had advised them to kneel; that, in case of refusal to kneel, he had refused to administer the sacrament to the party so refusing. The specification concerning his wife, he meets by testifying that she had received the sacrament at his hand, kneeling, many times, and that the curate had "not acquainted him, the said John Davenport, that he observed any such thing concerning his wife " as was charged.

It is evident from this disingenuous but doubtless literally true statement, that some of Davenport's parishioners, including his own wife, were at this time non-conformists, and that he had winked at their irregularity. It does not appear, however, that he himself had any scruple about kneeling, or had personally omitted any required ceremony.

The complaint seems to have resulted in nothing worse than a private admonition from his bishop. It was probably the conference between Laud and Davenport in reference to this complaint to which the prelate referred, when, in his report of the diocese of London k for that part of the year 1633 which elapsed before his elevation to the primacy, he said, "Since my return , x from Scotland, Mr. John Davenport, vicar of St. Stephen's in Coleman Street (whom I used with all moderation, and about two years since thought I had

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settled his judgment, having him then at advantage enough to have put extremity upon him, but forbore it), hath now resigned his vicarage, declared his judgment against conformity with the Church of England, and is since gone (as I hear) to Amsterdam." To his moderation with Davenport in reference to the complaint of Hood, the prelate again referred in his defence, when on trial for his life, before the Long Parliament. One charge being, that he had forced Davenport to flee from his parish and from the country, he said in reply: "The truth is, my lords, and 'tis well known, and to some of his best friends, that I preserved him once before, and my Lord Vere came, and gave me thanks for it."

About one year after* Davenport had escaped from this danger, Laud discovered the existence of a company, whose design was to purchase such advowsons as, having been impropriated to laymen in the time of Henry the Eighth, were now for sale, in order that the trustees, or, as they were styled, feoffees, of the company might present for induction men whom they regarded as orthodox, that is, as Calvinists. The company had been in operation for some years, and had already purchased several impropriations with money contributed for that purpose. The discovery of the project excited Laud vehemently. He hated Calvinists, whether conforming or non-conforming; partly for their theology, and partly for their almost invariable adhesion to the popular side in the contest between the Commons and the king. It was part of his plan of administration to exclude them from preferment; so that this company was, in his estimation, an organized

attempt to frustrate his plans. Davenport was one of the feoffees t>f this company, and, as such, participated in the heavy displeasure of the man who in the king's name ruled both Church and State. He and his associates were apprehensive that they might be • proceeded against in the Star-Chamber, and punished with ruinous fines; but Laud, having caused the corporation to be 'dissolved and its property to be confiscated, abstained from further vengeance. When the prosecution was brought to an end, Davenport recorded in his Bible his thanks to God for deliverance from the thing he feared.

The policy of excluding Calvinists from church preferment, even if faultless in their conformity, naturally forced conforming clergymen of that school of theology into closer sympathy with non-conformists, and into a wider estrangement from Laud and his associates. Doctrinal Puritans, a's Calvinists were now called, finding themselves proscribed by their ecclesiastical superiors, began to feel the force of the reasons which the ceremonial Puritans alleged for not conforming. Perhaps the suppression of the company of which he had been a trustee, and the confiscation of its property, turned the scales with which Davenport weighed these reasons. However this may be, it appears from his own testimony that he was " first staggered in his conformity, and afterward fully taken off, by set conferences and debates, which himself and sundry other ministers obtained with Mr. John Cotton, then driven from Boston [in Lincolnshire] on account of his non-conformity.

For several months he absented himself from the communion-service celebrated monthly in his church,

. 35

but might perhaps in time have relapsed into conformity. The tidings which caine on Sunday, Aug. 4, 1633, that the old Calvinistic Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, was dead, seem to have brought him to a decision. Abbot had been decidedly friendly to Cal-vinists who conformed, and not very severe against those who were guilty of some slight aberrations from the ritual. His brother, Sir Maurice Abbot, afterward lord mayor, was a parishioner of St. Stephen's, and had sometimes, spread over Davenport the shield of the archbishop's protection. But the primate was now dead, and the succession of Laud cast its shadow before. On Monday Davenport left the city; and on Tuesday Laud, returning from his missionary tour to Scotland, was saluted by the king as "my Lord of Canterbury." Davenport, after lying in concealment for about three months, escaped to Holland " disguised in a gray suit and an overgrown beard." x

We learn from one of his letters to the representative of the king of Great Britain, resident at the Hague, that when he went into that country he intended to remain only three or four months and then return to his native land. He cannot have expected that the storm which had driven him into exile would so soon subside entirely, or even sufficiently to permit him to resume his work as a Puritan preacher in England. Some thoughts may. have been in his mind of undertaking in 1634 what he accomplished in 1637. He had been interested in the Massachusetts Bay Company as early certainly as 1629, having contributed money to procure the charter which the king signed in that year, and had continued from

1 Letter of Stephen Goffe, dated 1633, Dec. 16/26.

that time to meet with its directors and to act on its committees. A short absence might be considered expedient to allow the vigilance of his enemies to abate before he should organize an expedition. Nevertheless any project of leading a colony from England to America, which he may have entertained when he landed in Holland, was so vague that he listened to a proposal to settle permanently in Amsterdam.

If for a time he cherished the thought of finding a home in Holland, he had doubtless relinquished it as early as 1635, for in that year his family returned to England. He followed them, probably in the summer or autumn of 1636; for the organization of a company of emigrants was so far forwarded in January of the following year that they had chartered a vessel, " made ready all their provisions and passengers, fitting both for the said voyage and plantation, and most of them thereupon engaged their whole estates." *

While these preparations were in progress, Davenport doubtless kept himself out of sight as much as he conveniently could, both on his own account, and for the sake of the expedition. Years afterward, Laud, alluding to him and his escape to New England, exclaimed, "My arm shall reach him even there." If it had been known that those who had chartered "the good ship Hector," to carry them to New England, and had engaged their whole estates in preparing for the voyage, were to have the former vicar of St. Stephen's as their leader, their undertaking might have been extinguished with as little regard to the rights of property

1 Petition of the Owners and Freighters of the Good Ship called the Hector of London. State Papers: Colonial.

as that of the feoffees had been. It did, indeed, become known at last that Davenport had returned. The vicar-general of the Bishop of London, reporting his visitation of the diocese, writes from Braintree, March 6, " Mr. Davenport hath lately been in these parts, and at Hackney, not long since. I am told that he goeth in gray, like a country gentleman." We may infer from what this reporter relates, that Davenport had not shown himself much in public, and, from his silence in reference to the expedition to New England, that he had heard nothing of Davenport's connection with it.

About twelve months before Davenport fled from London, Samuel Elaton and John Lathrop,1 two non-conforming clergymen, were imprisoned by the High Commission for holding conventicles. With the connivance of the jailer, Eaton continued to hold conventicles after his incarceration, as appears from a document preserved among the English State Papers, and here subjoined: -

" To the most Reverend Father in God, William, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his grace, Primate and Metropolitan of all England:-

"Humbly sheweth: - The most humble petition of Francis Tucker, Bachelor of Divinity, and prisoner in Newgate for debt. That whereas there is one Samuel Eaton, prisoner in Newgate, committed by your grace for a schismatical and dangerous fellow; that the said Eaton hath held divers conventicles within the said gaol, some whereof hath been to the number of seventy persons or more, and that he was permitted by the said keeper openly and publicly to preach unto them; and that the said Eaton hath often-

1 Lathrop had formerly been vicar of Egerton in Kent, but now was the teacher of a congregation of Separatists in London. Egerton had become a stronghold of Puritanism.

times affirmed in his said sermons that baptism was the doctrine of devils, and its original was an institution from the devil; and oftentimes he would rail against your grace, affirming that all bishops were heretics, blasphemers, and antichristian. That the said keeper, having notice hereof .by the petitioner, who desired him to be a means that these great resorts and conventicles might be prevented, and that he would reprove the said Eaton for the same, and remove him to some other place of the prison. That hereupon the said keeper, in a disdainful manner, replied that the petitioner should meddle with what he had to do; and if he did'dislike the said Eaton and his conventicles, he would remove the petitioner into some .worse place of the prison. That at this time there was a conventicle of sixty persgns or more; that the said keeper coming into the room where the conventicle was, and the said Eaton preaching unto them and maintaining dangerous opinions, having viewed the^said assembly, he said there was a very fair and goodly company; and staying there some season, departed without any distaste thereat, to the great encouragement of the said Eaton and the said persons to frequent the said place. That the said keeper had a strict charge from the said commission to have a special care of the said Eaton; and that since, the said keeper hath several times permitted him to go abroad to preach to conventicles appointed by him, the said Eaton. That daily there doth resort to the said^aton much people to hear him preach. That the said petitioner reproving the said keeper for the said contempt, he thereupon abused him with uncivil language, and further, caused the said Eaton to abuse the petitioner, not only with most abusive words, but also with blows."

Eaton and Lathrop were probably released on bail, for the court after calling them several times finally decreed, Feb. 19, 1635, that for their contempt in not appearing to answer charges touching their holding conventicles, thejr bonds should be certified, and they attached and committed. Lathrop, fortunately for him, was already in New England, having arrived at Boston with thirty-two of his congregation Sept. 18, 1634.

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Eaton, having lain in concealment till the return of Davenport from Holland, became his associate in the voyage to America. Perhaps he was drawn into such association by personal friendship, as well as by the peril to which they were exposed in common; for both were natives of Coventry, where Baton's father, a bene-ficed clergyman, had been the religious teacher and guide of Davenport's childhood and youth.

Theophilus Eaton, an older brother of Samuel Eaton, was so nearly of the age of Davenport that they had been schoolmates and intimate friends in Coventry. Intended by his parents for the church, he had become a merchant in London. Respected for his character and for his success in business, he was elected at an early age Deputy Governor of the Fellowship of Eastland Merchants, and sent by them, as their agent, to superintend their affairs and promote their interests in the countries bordering on the Baltic. Returning after an absence of three years, he became a parishioner of his friend, the vicar of St. Stephen's. Already so much a Puritan that he had scrupled when abroad at the lawfulness of drinking toasts, he was probably, when Davenport resigned his vicarage, as far advanced as he in nonconformity. The idea of expatriation had, perhaps, become less repulsive to his mind by reason of his long connection with the company of Massachusetts Bay, of which he was one of the original patentees, and to which he, like Davenport, had liberally given time and money. The acquaintance he had made with the court of High Commission through the recent experience of his brother Samuel, and perhaps through personal experience as his brother's bondsman, would naturally incline him to put

himself and his children beyond its jurisdiction. He not only joined the expedition, but acted so important a part in its history, that he and Davenport have been styled its Moses and Aaron.

Theophilus Eaton was living at this time with his second wife, whose daughter by a former husband was married to Edward Hopkins, a Puritan merchant of London. Hopkins much esteemed his wife's stepfather, and resolved to accompany him to America. Two young men, David Yale and Thomas Yale, sons of Mrs. Eaton, were also of the company.

John Evance, a London merchant and a parishioner of St. Stephen's, was present at the general vestry when Davenport was elected vicar in October, 1624. He had been married in May of the same year to Anne Young. It has been assumed by some writers that many of the New Haven planters had been parishioners of Davenport in London. He was so popular and prominent a preacher, that probably all of the company who had lived in London had heard him preach; but of 'the seventy-three persons present at the general vestry in October, 1624, only one is known to have come with Davenport to New Haven. Theophilus Eaton may have been a parishioner thus early; but, even if so, was probably absent at that time in the East countries. Other New Haven names than those of Evance and Eaton are found on the parish register of St. Stephen's; but the names are such as might be found elsewhere in England, and most of the persons who brought them to America are known to have crossed the Atlantic at an earlier or a later date than Eaton, Evance, and Davenport.

Besides these who were related to Davenport, as his former parishioners, or to Theophilus Eaton by family ties, several citizens of London joined the company. Not all of them can now be distinguished from those who came from other parts of the kingdom, but there is more or leas, authority for including in such a list the names of Stephen Goodyear, Richard Malbon, Thomas Gregson, William Peck, Robert Newman, Francis New-man, and Ezekiel Cheever.

The London men with their families forming the nucleus of the company, other families or companies from the rural counties became united with it. One group of families came from Kent, or, in other words, from the diocese of Canterbury, which, three years before, by the death of Archbishop Abbot, had fallen under the immediate administration of Laud. Abbot was, like the Puritans, a Calvinist in his theology; like them he was in sympathy with the reformed churches of the Continent, continuing to tolerate the French refugees, who from the time of Elizabeth had maintained worship according to the forms of their own church within his diocese and even in the basement of his cathedral; like them he believed in the sanctifi-cation of the Lord's day, preventing the reading, in the parish church of Croydon where he was residing at the time, of King James's proclamation which allowed and encouraged athletic games on the afternoon of Sunday. It was natural that a man so much in sympathy with the Puritans should deal leniently with them in regard to their deviations from ritual regularity. He was loath to deprive the Church of its most instruc-

tive and influential preachers, and hoped by mild treatment to bring them back to conformity.

Upon the accession of Laud, there was an immediate and radical change in the administration of the diocese. In the reports which he rendered annually to the king, the primate complains, both in 1634 and 1635, of a part of Kent around Ashford, as specially infected with distemper against the Church. In his account for 1636, he said, -

" I have every year acquainted your majesty, and so must do now, that there are still about Ashford and Egerton divers Brown-ists and other Separatists. But they are so very mean and poor people, that we know not what to do with them. They are said to be the disciples of one Turner and Fenner, who were long since apprehended by order of your Majesty's High Commission Court. But how this part came to be so infected with such a humor of separation, I know not, unless it were by too much connivance at their first beginning. Neither do I see any remedy like to be, unless some of their chief seducers be driven to abjure the king-dom which must be done by the judges at the common law, but is not in our power."

On the margin of the paper containing this account the king wrote, "Inform me of the particulars, and I shall command the1 judges to make them abjure." Among the English State Papers is a " Book of Rough Notes" by the king's secretary, containing these and other memoranda: -

" 163$ JAN. 6.-Proceedings of the Council at their several meetings during this month beginning this day.

"JAN. 21. - A catalogue of books written by anabaptists.

" That the statute of abjuration may be put in execution against some principal men. That the judges be spoken with against Fenner and Turner.

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"Speak with Lord Keeper and Mr. Attorney to draw a proclamation for altering the style or date of the year to begin in January.

"JAN. 25._To mind the Lords and Lord Keeper to speak with the judges and Mr. Attorney about altering the date of year [of] our Lord; that it may begin the first of January as in other kingdoms.

" And about putting the statute of abjuration; to be put in execution againsttPenner and Turner.

" Mr. Attorney is to speak with the judges about the date [of] beginning the new year."

. From these documents it is evident that the attention of Laud was turned in 1636, and the beginning of the following year, to the Separatists about Ashford and Egerton in Kent, and that he attempted to have the statute of abjuration put in execution against them. Such a movement of one so powerful and so relentless accounts for the. emigration of the Kentish men, who, * according to tradition, came with Davenport, or two years later with Whitfield, bringing so many family names identical with the names inscribed in the churchyards of Kent.1

Another company came from Hereford, a shire in the West of England, bordering pn Wales. The particular events which moved them to leave their homes at that time are yet to seek; but it is known that they left

1 The writer may be excused for specifying two brothers of his own name, whose ancestral home, though in another parish, was less than two miles from Egerton Church and in full view of its massive tower. Joshua Atwater, the elder of the two, had established himself as " a mercer " at Ashford. David Atwater, from whom all in America who bear that family name are descended, had not completed his twenty-second year when he landed in America. They had buried their father in November, 1636, and their mother in the following January; and, being thus liberated from filial duties, joined the expedition with their sister, the only surviving member of the family besides themselves. 44

under the influence and guidance of Peter Prudden, a clergyman of Hereford, well known to all of them by reputation, if not by personal knowledge of him as a preacher and pastor. Probably they learned through him of the expedition originated by Davenport and his friends; and became, through his agency, members of the association which, leaving London in April, 1637, founded New Haven in April, 1638. The fact that after they had belonged to the association more than two years, after they had resided some months in the new plantation, after some of them had built for themselves houses, and had left behind them the hardest of the hardships incident to such an enterprise, they separated" themselves from their associates, removed to Mil-ford, and settled in a town by themselves, with Prudden for their minister, evinces the strength and permanence of their attachment to the man whom they followed in leaving their homes in England. The Herefordshire people, for reasons which will appear hereafter, can be with more certainty distinguished from their fellow-passengers, and grouped together, than those from Kent.or those from London.

CHAPTER III.

THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR.

IT was a great undertaking for the. company which gradually gathered around Davenport and the Eatons, to prepare for a voyage across the Atlantic, and a permanent residence in the New World. The ministers could perhaps embark, with their books and household-stuff, in a few days; but merchants engaged in foreign commerce needed several months, after deciding to emigrate, for the conversion of their capital into money, or into merchandise suitable for the adventure in which they were engaging. But this company projected something more than emigration. They were not to scatter themselves, when they disembarked, among the different settlements already established in New England, but to remain together, and lay the foundation 'of a new and isolated community. For this reason a more comprehensive outfit was necessary than if ,they had expected to become incorporated, individually or. collectively, in communities already planted. In addition to the stores shipped by individuals, there must be many things provided for the common good, by persons acting in behalf of the whole company. There is evidence, that, after the expedition arrived at New Haven, its affairs

were managed like those of a joint-stock association, and therefore some ground for believing, that, from the beginning, those who agreed to emigrate in this company, or at least some of them, associated themselves together as partners in the profit and loss of the adventure. Higginson, some years before, had advised emigrants that " it were a wise course for those that are of abilities to join together and buy a ship for the voyage;" alleging as a reason, that transportation was so dear as five pounds a man, and ten pounds a horse, and commonly three pounds for every ton of goods. " All that come," he says, " must have victuals with them for a twelvemonth." Still earlier, Winslow had written from Plymouth, "Bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. Bring paper and linseed-oil for your windows, with cotton-yarn for your lamps." These directions, intended in both cases for emigrants coming to join communities already established, illustrate the need of studious foresight and careful cooperation in a company of persons proposing not only to remove to New England, but to begin a new and independent plantation. Davenport and Eaton had learned by experience, in fitting out vessels for the Massachusetts Bay Company, what would be needed in a new settlement, and were as well qualified, perhaps, as any could be, to prepare a list of necessary articles. The Abigail, the first ship which came to' Salem, brought ten thousand bricks as ballast; and bricks with " London " stamped on them were found at the demolition of a very ancient house in

New Haven.1 It is not certain that the vessel in which Davenport and Eaton embarked, was, like the Abigail, ballasted with bricks; but the fact that bricks were sometimes brought from England illustrates the care with which emigrant-ships were fitted out. The Abigail brought also sea-coals, but all freighters must have soon learned that it was useless to carry fuel- to a country so well timbered as New England. An emigrant-ship was further ballasted with iron, steel, lead, nails, and other heavy articles of utility. The bulk of the cargo consisted of apparel, bedding, food, tools, arms, ammunition, and seeds. Neat-cattle and goats were usually taken, and sometimes horses. Thb Massachusetts Bay Company had a rule, that a ship of two hundred tons should not carry above one hundred passengers, and other ships were limited after the same proportion. In the summer of 1636, several vessels recently arrived from England being in the harbor of Boston, Thomas Miller, the master's mate of one of them, was apprehended and brought before the Governor and Council, for saying, to some who came on board, that the colonists were traitors and rebels because they did not display the king's colors at the fort. The ship on which this insufferable speech was spoken was the Hector of London, William Femes, master. Sailing from Boston in July, she was chartered after her arrival 1 The writer remembers to have seen some of these bricks taken from the Atwater house of which Dr. Dana in his Century Sermon speaks as built by Joshua Atwater, one of the emigrants. I think, however, that the house was built by a nephew of Joshua Atwater. Certainly Thomas Att-water (as he chose to write his name), who in Dr. Dana's time occupied the house, was not descended from Joshua Atwater, but from his brother David.

in London by the company whose origin has been related in the preceding chapter. While they were preparing her for another voyage to Boston, she was seized by the Lords of the Admiralty for the king's service, as will appear from the following petition without date, but indorsed, " Received January, 1637:" - " To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of his Majesty's High Court of Admiralty :- "The humble petition of the Owners and Freighters of the good ship called the Hector of London, " Humbly showeth unto your honors that your petitioners having contracted for a voyage with the said ship from here to New England for a plantation there, and from there to divers parts in the Streights, the freighters have made ready all their provisions and passengers, fitting both for the said voyage and plantation, and most of them thereupon engaged their whole estates and paid part of their moneys. Since which agreement and preparation made, the said ship is impressed for his Majesty's service whereby she is hindered from proceeding on the said intended voyage. " Their most humble suit therefore is that in respect of the petitioners' great charges already arisen before the impressing of the ship, and her not proceeding on her voyage will tend to the great loss, if not utter undoing of divers of your honors' suppliants, and for that, if it pleased God the ship do safely returne, the Custom to his Majesty of the goods to be imported in her from the Streights hither will amount to .£3000 at the least, your Lordships would be pleased to give order and warrant for the release of the said ship from her impression that so she may proceed on her said voyage, " And they as in duty bound shall daily pray." This petition was supported by the following certificate, signed by Samuel Hutchinson, Richard Hutchin-son, and Arthur Hollingworth, who were perhaps the owners of the Hector:- " We whose names are hereunto subscribed do hereby certify that the good ship called the Hector of London was contracted for,

for a voyage, and that provision was made and provided before the said ship was impressed for the king's Majesty's service. In testimony whereof we have hereunder set our names the nineteenth of January A. D. 1637." On the 23d of the same month the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to Sir .William Russell, through whom the petition, with others of like import, had reached them, as follows : - "Sir,- The Lords Commissioners for the Admiralty (having perused your letter of the 2ist of this month touching the merchant ships ordered to be taken up for his Majesty's service) have commanded me to signify to you that they think it not fit to release any of the said ships upon the pretences expressed in your letter (albeit the same may be true) in regard they perceive by your letter that there are not at present any merchant ships in the Thames fit to send in their places. But when you shall certify their Lordships that there are other merchant ships in the river of the like burden and force, fit for his Majesty's service that may be completely fitted and ready by the 2oth of April next, their Lordships will consider further of the allegations of the owners of the four ships mentioned in your said letter and declare their further pleasure thereupon." Not entirely discouraged by this reply, the captain of the Hector presented another petition without date, but indorsed, "1637, February 14:" - " To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of the Admiralty : - "The humble petition of William Femes, master of the ship called the Hector, "Humbly showeth that whereas the petitioner hath been an humble suitor to your honors for the releasing of the said ship; for that there was a contract and provision was made for a voyage long before, which tends to the ruin of many, except your honors be pleased to give order for her discharge; for that there are

divers ships come in more fit and able for his Majesty's service, viz., the Vinty about 300 tons and 22 pieces of ordnance; the Royal Defence 300 tons and upwards, with 22 pieces of ordnance; the Pleiades 350 tons, 26 ordnance; Prudence 370 tons, 28 pieces ordnance; one whereof Mr. Wise is master, 350 tons and 24 pieces of ordnance; " His humble suit therefore is that your honors will please to give order that the said ship called the Hector may be discharged for the reasons aforesaid, that she may go on in her intended voyage, " And the petitioner with many others shall pray." Ultimately, the Hector was released; and from an order of the king in council, that the Pleiades, with other impressed vessels, should be ready for sea on the 25th of April, it may be inferred that she was substituted for the Hector. The reader will have noticed that the names of the freighters are withheld in all these negotiations for the release of their ship. It is alleged that many will suffer, and perhaps be undone, but there is nothing to call attention to any individuals as engaged in the enterprise. The lords of the council were not ignorant that considerable emigration to New England had already taken place, or that the exodus still continued; but they believed that those who went were for the most part poor and mean people, who would be of little advantage at home and might, if colonized, be of use by increasing foreign commerce. Moreover they were unaware how strongly this emigration was leavened with Puritanism. If they had known that several wealthy merchants of London, inclined to non-conformity, had embarked their whole estates in the Hector, and were intending to go to New England with their families to find there a permanent residence, they would have found means to

frustrate the undertaking. On the 30th of April proclamation was made, "that the king -being informed that great numbers of his subjects are yearly transported into those parts of America which have been granted by patent to several persons, and there settle themselves, some of them with their families and whole estates, amongst whom are many idle and refractory humors, whose only or principal end is to live without the reach of authority - doth command his officers and ministers of the ports, not to suffer any persons, being subsidy men or of their value, to pass to any of those plantations without a license from his Majesty's commissioners for plantations first obtained; nor any under the degree of subsidy men, without a certificate from two justices of the peace where they lived, that they have taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and a testimony from the minister of the parish, of their conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church of England." As the Hector arrived in Boston on the 26th of June, we may infer from the date of this proclamation that it was issued immediately after she had sailed, and that it was occasioned by the discovery of the true nature of an expedition in which several persons, being subsidy men, or of their value, had clandestinely left the kingdom and carried away their estates. If the ship was chartered by a joint-stock association, it does not follow that only shareholders took passage in her. The Massachusetts Bay Company had a regular tariff of rates at which they received all freight that was offered, and all passengers who were approved. Theophilus Eaton owned a sixteenth of the Arbella, which had been purchased expressly for that company's

service; and both he and Davenport, as directors of the company," had become familiar with its methods. The rates of that company were five pounds for the passage of an adult, and four pounds for a ton of goods. The association of adventurers which chartered the Hector would- naturally adopt similar methods and similar rates. Having secured accommodation for themselves and their families, and for the freight which belonged to the association and to the individuals composing it, they would receive persons not shareholders, at the regular rates. Some of the emigrants may have been precluded from taking stock in the association by the expenses of emigration; but the originators of the enterprise would naturally desire that all who were of sufficient ability should have a pecuniary interest in its welfare. There was at least one passenger who did not come as an emigrant. Winthrop writes in his journal, "In the Hector came also the Lord Leigh, son and heir of the Earl of Marlborough, being about nineteen years of age, who came only to see the country. He was of very sober carriage, especially in the ship, where he was much disrespected and unworthily used by the master, one Femes, and some of the passengers; yet he bore it meekly and silently."' ' Before the Hector sailed, the company which chartered her had so increased that it became necessary to hire another vessel to accompany her on the voyage; but the name of the vessel has not been preserved to us. This unexpected increase was due to the accession 1 Winthrop perhaps changed his mind about Lord Leigh, when that youth, having accepted the governor's invitation to a dinner-party made expressly to honor him, was persuaded by Harry Vane to absent himself.

of those who have been mentioned* as coming from Kent and from Herefordshire. Concerning the latter, we have no means of determining when Prudden began to negotiate with Davenport; but the men of Kent appear to have joined the expedition after the Hector was engaged for the voyage. Their departure was so hasty that many who. wished to go were forced to wait for another opportunity, and came out two years afterward in the first ship which sailed from England direct to the harbor of New Haven. No documents have yet been found which indicate the day when the Hector and her consort sailed from London,1 or the manner in which the officers of the port discharged their official duty in examining the certificates of the passengers. Similar requirements to those prescribed by the proclamation of April 50 had been made by a proclamation issued more than two years earlier, but were nevertheless insufficient to prevent the emigration of Puritans. Many found no difficulty in obtaining a bona-fide certificate of conformity, and it does not appear that any objected to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. If unable to obtain a certificate from the minister of the parish where they had lived, they came, some clandestinely, and some under borrowed names and corresponding passports. It is said that John Aylmer, Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth's time, and an exile for religion in Queen 1 Sir Matthew Boynton, who had previously sent out some cattle, and some servants to care for them, in a letter dated " London, April 12,1637," writes to John Winthrop, jun., "I have sent either of my servants half a year's wages by Mr. Hopkins, which, I pray you, deliver to them." Probably this letter came in the Hector with Mr. Hopkins. If so, she sailed after the 12th of April.

Mary's reign, was so small of stature, that, when the searchers were clearing the ship in which he made his escape, the merchant put him into a great wine'-butt that had a partition in the middle, so that Aylmer was enclosed in the hinder part while the searchers drank of the wine which they saw drawn out of the head on the other part.' The Puritans of the seventeenth century were capable of exercising equal ingenuity when necessary ; but, in a ship full of his friends, a person obnoxious to the government might be secreted for an hour without so much trouble, even if the searching officer were in sympathy with the lords of .the Privy Council. In many cases, however, the searcher discharged his duty perfunctorily, and with no earnest desire to discover and arrest those who embarked without the required certificates. If ever lists of the passengers in the Hector and her consort should be discovered, they will probably not contain the name of John Davenport or of Samuel Eaton. Two months was perhaps the average time consumed in sailing from London to Boston in the vessels of that day. The Arbella, when she brought Winthrop and his company, was a little more than two months from Yarmouth to Salem; and there is no intimation in his journal that the voyage was unexpectedly long. Hig-ginson says, " Our passage was short and speedy; for whereas we had three thousand miles English to sail from Old to New England, we performed the same in six weeks and three days." A passage was indeed sometimes made in less time, but in other instances was protracted to three months. A vessel made but one round 1 Fuller's Worthies, B. II., 248.

trip in a year, leaving England in the spring and arriving home in the autumn. Crowded cabins rendered the passage uncomfortable, even when speedy; but a protracted voyage often induced not only discomfort, but disease. None of the passengers in the Hector, or in the vessel which accompanied' her, having supplied us with his journal, we must avail ourselves of diaries of contemporary voyages if we would see them in imagination pursuing - their way down the Thames, through the - A BARQUE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Channel, and over the Atlantic, Sea-sickness reigned supreme as they passed along the southern coast of their native island; but in the first pleasant weather after they had gained the open sea, they "fetched out the children and others, that were sick and lay groaning in the cabins, and, having stretched a rope from the steerage to the mainmast, made them stand, some on one side and some on the other, and sway it up and down till they were warm. By this means they soon grew well and merry." Afterward, "when the ship

heaved and set more than usual, a few were sick, but of these such as came upon deck and stirred themselves were presently well again; therefore, our captain set our children and young men to some harmless exercises in which the seamen were very active, and did our people much good, though they would sometimes play the wags with them." * Once or twice during the voyage the wind blew a gale; and the passengers being confined to the cabin united in the observance of a fast with a protracted service of prayer, which, when the wind subsided, was followed by a service of thanksgiving. " We constantly served God morning and evening, by reading and expounding a chapter, singing, and prayer; and the sabbath was solemnly kept by adding to the former, preaching twice, and catechising. Besides, the shipmaster a'nd his company used every night to set their eight and twelve o'clock watches with singing a psalm, and prayer that was not read out of a book." 2 Sometimes one vessel so far outsailed her consort, that she must take in some sail, and stay for her, lest the two should be entirely separated for the remainder of the voyage. " Our captain, supposing us now to be near the coast, fitted on a new mainsail, that was very strong and double, and would not adventure with his old sails as before, when he had sea-room enough." " This evening we saw the new moon more than half an hour after sunset, being much smaller than it is at any time in England." "About four this morning, we sounded, and had ground at thirty fathom; and, it being somewhat calm, we put our ship a-stays, and took, in less than two hours, with a few hooks, sixty-seven codfish, 1 Winthrop. * Higginson.

most of them very great fish. This came very seasonably, for our salt fish was now spent, and we were taking care for victuals this day, being a fish day." "We had now fair sunshine weather, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." Four days later, both the ships lay at anchor, and the weary voyagers, were on shore, some gathering store of fine strawberries, and others entertained in the houses of friends, who feasted them with "good venison pasty, and good beer."

CHAPTER IV.
THE WINTER SPENT IN MASSACHUSETTS.

BOSTON in its infancy welcomed all Puritan immigrants. Its inhabitants rejoiced in the growth of their town and of their colony; they were pleased to find a market for the products of their gardens; they enjoyed the society of those through whom they could receive tidings from the mother-country, and with whom they could fraternize in religious worship. In many cases they found among the new-comers old acquaintances, the sight of whom awakened memories of the past and the absent, in which, after so long an exile from home, they experienced unspeakable pleasure. But the immigrants who landed in Boston on the 26th of June, 1637, received a warmer welcome than ordinary. The eminence of "the famous Mr. Davenport," and the opulence of the merchants who accompanied him, gave to this company, in the estimation of the colonists, an unusual value. Not only Boston, but the whole colony of Massachusetts, was desirous that they should settle within that Commonwealth. " Great pains were taken, not only by particular persons and towns, but by the General Court, to fix them in the colony. Charlestown made them large offers; and Newbury proposed to give up the whole town to them. The

59 General Court offered them any place which they should choose." ' The arrival of Davenport was considered especially opportune because of the influence he might exert in bringing to an end the controversy which then divided the churches of Massachusetts in regard to Ann Hutch-inson and the doctrines which she preached. " There are certain opinions which always come forth, under one form or another, in times of great religious excitement, to dishonor the truth which they simulate, and to defeat the work of God by heating the minds of men to enthusiasm, and thus leading them into licentiousness of conduct. These opinions, essentially the same under many modifications, have been known in various ages by various names, as Antinomianism, Familism, and - in our day-Perfectionism. Persons falling into these errors commonly begin by talking mystically and extravagantly about grace, the indwelling of the Spirit, the identity of believers with the person of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, or of God. As they proceed, they learn to despise all ordinances and means of grace; they put contempt upon the Bible as a mere dead letter, worth nothing in comparison .with their inspiration ; they reject and revile all civil government and order; and not unfrequently they end in denying theoretically all the difference between right and wrong so far as their conduct is concerned, and in rushing to the shameless perpetration of the most loathsome wickedness. This intellectual and spiritual disease had broken out in Massachusetts, and threatened to become epidemic. An artful, enthusiastic, and eloquent 1 Trumbull.

6O woman, forgetting the modesty of her sex, had set herself up for a preacher; and by the adroitness with which she addressed herself to the weaknesses and prejudices of individuals and drew to her side the authority of some of the most honored names in the colony, she seemed likely, not only to lead her own blind followers to the wildest extravagances, but to spread division through all the churches. In this crisis, a man so eminent as Davenport, so much respected by all parties, so exempt from any participation in the controversy, so learned in the Scriptures, so skilled in the great art of marking distinctions and detecting fallacies, could not but be welcomed by all." * A synod of " all the teaching elders in the country " was called to discuss the questions at issue, and discriminate between truth and error. Of this assembly, which began its sessions Aug. 30, and continued to sit for three weeks, Davenport was one of the most influential members. " The wisdom and learning of this worthy man," says Mather, " did contribute more than a little to dispel the fascinating mists which had suddenly disordered our affairs." A few days after the adjournment, Davenport, by request of the synod, preached a sermon in which, "with much wisdom and sound argument, he persuaded to unity." 2 Meantime it had become evident that the people who had come from the mother-country with Davenport, and acknowledged him as a leader, were not content to settle in the vicinity of Boston. Trumbull suggests that the Antinomian controversy was one reason why they wished to remove to a distance. But the same

1 Bacon: Historical Discourses.
* Winthrop.

writer says, " It is probable that the motive which had the greatest influence with the principal men was the desire of being at the head of a new government, modelled, both in civil and religious matters, agreeably to their own apprehensions. In laying the foundations of a new colony, there was a fair probability that they might accommodate all matters of church and commonwealth to their own feelings and sentiments. But in Massachusetts the principal men were fixed in the chief seats of government, which they were likely to keep, and their civil and religious polity was already formed." The day after the synod assembled, Theophilus Eaton started with a considerable party on a tour of exploration. The Pequot war had made the English acquainted with the country west of the Connecticut River and bordering on Long Island Sound. The Indians fled westward after the destruction of their fort at Mystic, and the English, pursued them as far as Fairfield, where on the 13th of July, seven weeks before Eaton started, so many of the Pequots were slain, that the few survivors ceased to maintain a tribal organization, and became incorporated with other tribes. In this pursuit, the troops marching on the land, and their vessels holding a parallel course on the water, the English came to a harbor, which the Indians called by a name variously written in that age, but known in modern orthography as Quinnipiac, where they staid several days. They were charmed with the country. Capt. Stoughton, in a letter to Gov. Winthrop, speaks of it as preferable to Pequot as a place for a settlement. He says, " The providence of God guided us to so excellent a country at Quellipioak river, and so all along the coast as we

traveled, as I am confident we have not the like as yet." In another letter "from Pequot, the 2nd day of the 6th week of our warfare," he says, " For this place is scarce worthy much cost. But if you would enlarge the state and provide for the poor servants of Christ that are yet unprovided (which I esteem a worthy work), I must speak my conscience. I confess, the place and places whither God's providence carried us, that is, to Quillepiage River, and so beyond to the Dutch, is before this, or the Bay either (so far as I can judge), abundantly." This was probably written Aug. 14; and the gallant captain reached Boston on the 26th of the same month, when he had opportunity to give more copious description of what he had seen. Capt. Underhill doubtless made report answerable to what he has written in his " History of the Pequot War," of that famous place called Queenapiok. " It hath a fair river, fit for harboring of ships, and abounds with rich and goodly meadows." Moved by such tidings, Eaton went immediately to view the place; and so well did he like it, that, when he set out on his return to Boston, he left seven of his men to remain through the winter and make preparation for the arrival of the rest of the company. It was September when he and his followers first saw Quinnipiac; and they doubtless spent some weeks in the neighborhood, skirting the shore with their pinnace to examine harbors and rivers. There can be no doubt that Eaton, when he returned to Boston, was fully persuaded in his own mind, that Quinnipiac was preferable to any

other available place for the projected plantation. Indeed, Winthrop speaks as if he thought the question already settled when Eaton started on his tour of exploration. Under date of Aug. 31, he says, "Mr. Eaton and some others of Mr. Davenport's company went to view Quinnipiac with intent to begin a plantation there. They had many offers here, and at Plymouth, and they had viewed many places, but none would content." But in a matter of so great importance it was necessary to proceed slowly. The exploring party must report to those who had remained in Massachusetts, and all the shareholders must have a voice in selecting a place for their plantation. Perhaps it was already too late in the year to build houses that would sufficiently shelter women and children from the rigor of the approaching winter, even if the work were commenced immediately. Certainly it was deemed expedient to remain in Massachusetts till the opening of spring; and this was the expectation when Eaton, leaving seven men at Quinnipiac, returned to Boston to make his report. Joshua Atwater, Francis Brown, John Beecher, Robert Pigg, and Thomas Hogg were of the seven. The names of the others have not been preserved. One of the seven died during the winter; and his bones were found in the year 1750, in digging the cellar of the stone house at the corner of George and Meadow Streets.1 The hut which sheltered these adventurous

1 I think that the man who died was John Beecher, as his name does not occur on the earlier records, and there was a widow Beecher whose son Isaac was old enough in 1644 to take the oath of fidelity. Dr. Dana has preserved the tradition that Joshua Atwater was one of the seven who remained at Quinnipiac during the winter: Lambert mentions the four other names.

men was near the creek, and about fifty rods west of the place where the survivors buried the body of their comrade. A copious spring which once issued from the bank between George Street and the creek, and was covered when the creek was converted into a sewer, may have determined the location of the hut. We may imagine that they spent their time in hewing, cleaving, and sawing, in hunting and trapping, and in collecting, by means of barter with the natives, beaver and other furs for the European market. If, like their brethren at Saybrook, they had dogs, they might, by enclosing their house with palisades, lie down to sleep with as little danger of being surprised by an enemy, as if they had been in Boston. Whatever communication they had with their friends during the winter, must have been by means of special messengers. Indian runners were easily found to perform such a service.1 We shall presently see, that before the 12th of March, letters had been sent by their friends in Massachusetts, directing . them to transact with the natives for the purchase of land. Doubtless the same letters instructed them to build huts, and make all possible provision for the comfort of those who were to arrive. With the exception of these seven, the people who crossed the Atlantic in the Hector and her consort remained in Boston or in the vicinity during the winter, many of them having found employment suitable to their several vocations. Though somewhat scattered, some finding lodgings and employment in one place and some in another, they were still an organized com-

* Trumbull quotes Roger Williams as saying," I have known them run between eighty and a hundred miles in a summer's day."

pany, and as such were required by the government of Massachusetts to pay taxes as if they had already settled as a town in that Commonwealth. A tax was levied by the General Court, in November after their arrival, to pay the expenses of the Pequot war. The sum required was a thousand pounds, of which nine hundred and eighty pounds was assessed upon the several towns ; the name of Mr. Eaton being added to the list of towns, with the minute, " Mr. Eaton is left out of this rate, leaving it to his discretion what he will freely give toward these charges." The difference between the amount required, and the amount of the assessments, indicates what sum it was desired that Mr. Eaton should " freely give ;" and the discretion allowed him was, probably due to the fact that these expenses had been for the most part incurred before he and his party arrived in the country; the destruction of the fort at Mystic, which was the great event of the war, having taken place on the 26th of May, a full month before the Hector cast anchor in the harbor of Boston. But when another rate was levied, on the twelfth day of March of the following year, amounting to fifteen hundred pounds, Mr. Eaton's name was again appended to the list of towns with an assessment of twenty pounds, and without intimation that payment was optional. It is a noteworthy coincidence that this second tax is of the same date with the following letter: - " It may please the worthy and much honored Governor, Deputy, and Assistants, and with them the present Court, to take knowledge, that our desire of staying within this patent was real and strong, if the eye of God's providence (to whom we have committed our ways, especially in so important an enterprise as this,

which, we confess, is far above our capacities) had guided us to a place convenient for our families and friends. Which, as our words have often expressed, so, we hope, the truth thereof is sufficiently declared by our almost nine months' patient waiting in expectation of some opportunity to be offered us, for that end, to our great charge and hindrance many ways. In all which time we have, in many prayers, commended the guidance of our apprehensions, judgments, spirits, resolutions, and ways into the good hand of the only wise God, whose prerogative it is to determine the bounds of our habitations, according to the ends for which he hath brought us into these countries; and we have considered, as we were able, by his help, whatsoever place hath been pro- • pounded to'us, being ready to have with contentment accepted (if by our stay any public good might be promoted) smaller accommodations and upon dearer terms (if they might be moderately commodious) than, we believe, most men, in the same case with us in all respects, would have done. And whereas a place for an inland plantation, beyond Watertown, was propounded to us, and pressed^ with much importunity by some, whose words have the power of a law with us, in any way of God, we did speedily and seriously deliberate thereupon, it being the subject of the greatest part of a day's discourse. The conclusion was that, if the upland should answer the meadow ground in goodness and desirableness, (whereof yet there is some cause of doubting,) yet, considering that a boat cannot pass from the bay thither, nearer than eight or ten miles distance, and that it is so remote from the bay, and from any town, we could not see how our dwelling there would be advantageous to these plantations or compatible with our conditions or commodious for our families or for our friends. Nor can we satisfy ourselves that it is expedient for ourselves, or for our friends, that we choose such a condition, wherein we must be compelled to have our dwelling houses so far distant from our farms as Boston or Charlestown is from that place, few of our friends being able to bear the charge thereof, (whose cases, nevertheless, we are bound to consider,) and some of them, that are able, not being persuaded that it is lawful for them to live continually from the greatest part of their families, as in this case they would be necessitated to do. The season of the year, and other weighty -considerations; compelled us to hasten to

a full and final conclusion, which we are at last come unto, by God's appointment and direction, we hope, in mercy, and have sent letters to Connecticut for a speedy transacting the purchase of the parts about Quillypiac from the natives which may pretend title thereunto. By which act we absolutely and irrevocably engaged that way; and we are persuaded that God will order it for good unto these plantations, whose love so abundantly above our deserts or expectations, expressed in your desire of our abode in these parts, as we shall ever retain in thankful memory, so we, shall account ourselves thereby obliged to be any way instrumental and serviceable for the common good of these plantations as well as of those; which the divine providence hath combined together in as strong ra bond of brotherly affection, by the sameness of their condition, as Joab and Abishai were, whose several armies did mutually strengthen them both against their several enemies, ii. Sam. x. 9,10,11; or rather they are joined together, as Hippocrates his twins, to stand and fall, to grow and decay, to flourish and wither, to live and die, together. In witness of the premises we subscribe our names,

The I2th day of the ist month, 1638." •This letter, which is still preserved, is in the handwriting of Davenport, but is superscribed as follows in the handwriting of Eaton : " To the much honored, the Governor, Deputy, and Assistants." From this communication it appears that even if Eaton had returned from his tour of exploration fully expecting that he and his

company would settle at Quinnipiac, he had not so fully expressed his determination as to preclude further effort to persuade him to remain in Massachusetts. It further appears that before the date of this communication the company had formally decided to fix their plantation at Quinnipiac, and had sent notice thereof to those who were already on the ground. Eighteen days afterward, that is, on the 3Oth of March, the leaders of the company and most of their followers embarked at Boston. After a tedious voyage of "about a fortnight they arrived at their desired port."* Winthrop thus narrates their departure: " Mr. Davenport and Mr. Prudden and a brother of Mr. Eaton, (being ministers also,) went by water to Quinnipiac; and with them many families removed out of this jurisdiction to plant in those parts, being much taken with the opinion of the fruitfulness of that place and more safety (as they conceived) from danger of a general governor, who was feared to be sent this summer; which though it were a great weakening to these parts, yet we expected to see a good providence of God in it, (for all possible means had been used to accommodate them here; Charlestown offered them largely, Newbury their whole town, the court any place which was free,) both for possessing those parts which lay open for an enemy, and for strengthening our friends at Connecticut, and for making room here for many, who were expected out of England this year, and for diverting the thoughts and intentions of such in England as intended evil against us, whose designs might be frustrate by our scattering so far; and such as were now gone that way were as much in the eye of the state of England as we here."

1 Trumbull

CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST YEAR AT QUINNIPIAC.

THE company which came from London in the Hector and her consort, numbered about fifty adult men; or, including women, children, and servants, about two hundred and fifty persons. But so great was the enthusiasm excited by the report which the soldiers brought of Quinnipiac, and so strong the confidence felt in the leaders of the expedition, that when the company left Boston in the spring of 1638 its number was considerably increased by accessions from Massachusetts. Skirting the coast, and perhaps calling at Saybrook fort where Lion Gardiner, an old acquaintance of Davenport, commanded,1 they at last reached the harbor of Quinnipiac. West of the river of that name, they saw two smaller streams pouring into the harbor, each sufficient to float such a vessel as theirs. The mouth of the East Creek was where the railway now crosses East Water Street, and vessels entering it could be floated up, over what is now the bed of the rail-

1 Gardiner, in his relation of the Pequot wars, says that it was " through the persuasion of Mr. John Davenport and Mr. Hugh Peters, with some other well-affected Englishmen of Rotterdam," that he left the service of the Prince of Orange in Holland to serve the patentees of Connecticut- Mass. Hist. Coll. XXIII., p. 136.

way, as far as Chapel Street.1 The West Creek emptied its waters where the sewer now crosses West Water Street. Still farther westward, beyond Oyster Point, the West River also emptied its waters into the harbor. Up the West Creek sailed Davenport and his companions, gazing with interest on the wilderness which was to be their home. They saw a plain extending inland about two miles, at which distance stood basaltic rocks colored with iron, and so prominent in the landscape that the Dutch had called the place Rodenbergh or Red Mount. It was well supplied with timber, but there were spaces where the natives had raised successive harvests of maize. A dense forest covered a small tract where the " spruce masts ". grew; but the larger portion was an open forest, promising to supply sufficient timber for building houses and fences, with perhaps a little surplus for exportation in the form of clapboards and shingles. The tree under which they held their service of worship on the first sabbath after their arrival was a spreading oak which had not lacked room for development. Before the expiration of the second year it was ordered by the General Court that "no man shall cut any timber down, but where he shall be assigned by the magistrate, except on his 6wn ground." Such an enactment implies that there was no superabundance of timber in the vicinity of the settlement. On the west side of this plain were broad salt meadows, bordering the West River on either bank, and extending inland almost to the Red Hill which the planters called the West Rock. On the east side of the plain were 1 N. H. Col. Rec. I. 143.

still more extensive salt meadows spread out on both sides of the Quinnipiac, or East River, and also on both sides of a stream flowing into it a short distance above its outlet, which the settlers named Mill River as soon as they were able to erect a mill. The meadows on the Quinnipiac extended northward much farther than those on West River. These salt meadows on both sides of the plain, yielding abundant provender without delay and without labor, had greatly influenced the company in choosing this place for their plantation. Invisible from the deck of the pinnace, they were doubtless eagerly inquired for by those who had not been of the exploring party. But, though rendered invisible by the intervention of higher ground, they so much widened the view, that on one side the eye could reach the hills beyond the West River, and, on the other, the highlands beyond the Quinnipiac.

The temporary shelters, which the first planters of New England provided for their families till they could erect permanent dwellings, were of different kinds. Some planters carried tents with them to the place chosen for a new home; some built wigwams like those of the natives. Either species would suffice in summer; but for winter they usually built huts, as they called them, similar to the modern log-cabins in the forests of the West, though in some instances if not in most, they were roofed, after the English fashion, with thatch. It was perhaps a peculiarity of New Haven, that cellars were used for temporary habitations. They were, as the name suggests, partially under ground, and perhaps in most cases on a hill-side. If built on the bank between the West Creek and George Street, with aper-

tures opening to the south, they would be open to the sun and sheltered from the northern winds. Rev. Michael Wigglesworth,1 who came to Quinnipiac with his parents in October, 1638, when he was about seven years old, describes the cellar in which the family spent the first winter, as covered with earth on the roof. Such a covering might be effectual to exclude the cold winds of winter, but, as the boy's experience proves, it was a poor protection from a heavy rain. When he was an old man he remembered how he had been, while asleep, drenched with water permeating the muddy roof, and had been afflicted in consequence with a dangerous illness. Doubtless the party which had wintered at the place had made ready not only a public storehouse, but several huts or cellars in which their friends who were to arrive might temporarily shelter their families. These would be visible to the new-comers as they approached the shore and ascended the creek.

The pinnace in which they had made the voyage was perhaps the property of some of the company, for such a vessel would be constantly in requisition for various services to the inhabitants of a new plantation. But, even if owned in Boston, she would remain for some days till accommodations on shore could be provided for all.

It was Friday when they left Boston; and, as they are said to have spent about a fortnight on the voyage, it was the latter part of the week when they arrived. On the sabbath they worshipped under an oak-tree near the landing; and Mr. Davenport, in a sermon on Matt, iv. I, "insisted on the temptations of the wilderness, made such observations, and gave such directions and 1 See his autobiographical paper in Appendix I.

exhortations, as were pertinent to the then present condition of his hearers." He left this remark, that he "enjoyed a good day." * Lambert says that Mr. Prud-den preached in the afternoon, but does not give his authority. It was perhaps a Milford tradition, and it has inherent probability.

In the valedictory letter of Davenport and Eaton to the General Court of Massachusetts they say, "We have sent letters to Connecticut for a speedy transacting the purchase of the parts about Quinnipiac from the natives." The purchase had probably been effected before their arrival in April, though no written deed was ^igned till the following November. The natives, therefore, were expecting the large re-enforcement received by the six Englishmen with whom they were now well acquainted. They welcomed the new-comers, and were pleased to have in their neighborhood a plantation of Englishmen, to which they might retreat when molested by their enemies, and where they might barter their venison, pelts, and furs, for the much-admired tools and trinkets of the English. They now for the first time saw English women and children; and their curiosity, which, in respect to the little company left by Eaton in the preceding autumn, had waned, again drew them to the border of the West Creek. The medal

* Trumbull, i. 96. It is apparent that Trumbull had access to some diary or other written statement of Davenport. The oak-tree was about twenty feet north of George Street, and about forty-five feet east of College Street. It is said that a section of the tree afterward supported the anvil on which two stalwart generations of Beechers hammered, before Lyman Beecher transferred the ro1e of the family from the anvil to the pulpit. Their shop was in College Street, near the place where the tree had stood.

struck two centuries afterward, in commemoration of the settlement of the town, very properly represents some of them sitting near the company assembled on Sunday under the oak-tree. "Here they witnessed the worship which the English rendered to the Great Spirit. Here they began to be acquainted with the preacher whom afterward they characterized as " so-big-study man."

The English soon after their arrival at Quinnipiac observed a day of extraordinary humiliation, when they formed a social compact, mutually promising "that as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices, which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature," they would all of them be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds forth. For more than a year they had no other civil or eccle-

siastical organization. There were doubtless frequent meetings for the transaction of business, and, if we may judge of that year by the years that followed, there were penalties inflicted on evil-doers. But, if any individuals were authorized to act as magistrates, the record of their appointment has not been preserved. The plantation covenant, like the compact signed in the cabin of the Mayflower, was a provisional arrangement of men, who, finding themselves beyond the actual jurisdiction of any earthly government, attempted to govern themselves according to the law of God.

The first care of the planters was to choose a site for their future town; the next to lay out streets and house-lots, so that each family might as soon as possible make preparations for gardening and building. Tradition reports that they would have chosen Oyster Point but for the difficulty of digging wells, water being obtained in that neighborhood only at great depth. They decided, however, to locate the principal part of their town on the north side of the West Creek, rather than on the south side, and to make a line parallel with that stream and near its border, the base-line of the town-plot. Accordingly George Street was laid out half a mile in length and upon it as a base, a square was described. The half-mile square not being sufficient, two suburbs were added. One consisted of a four-sided piece whose shape and dimensions were determined by the two creeks as the water ran when nearing the harbor. It was bounded by George, Water, Meadow, and State Streets. The other was on the west side of the West Creek. Changes since made in the highways render

difficult the task of defining it; but Hill Street was its eastern, or more properly north-eastern, boundary.

The square described on George Street was divided by two parallel streets running east and west, and by two parallel streets running north and south, into nine equal squares; of which the square in the centre was sequestered as a market-place. The remaining eight squares and the suburbs were divided into house-lots, and assigned to the planters severally, who seem to have grouped themselves, to' some extent, according to personal acquaintance and friendship in the old country. The Herefordshire men, for example, had their lots on the south-west and south-centre squares, or quarters, as they were then called. The eight squares were for a long time distinguished one from another by the names of some prominent persons who lived on the quarters to which their names were respectively applied. The north-east square was called Mr. Baton's quarter, or in later years the Governor's quarter. The north-centre was Mr. Robert Newman's quarter. The north-west was Mr. Tench's quarter. The west-centre was. Mr. Evance's quarter, or, for a reason which will be explained hereafter, the Yorkshire quarter. The southwest was Mr. Fowler's, or the Herefordshire quarter. Mr. Gregson's name was applied to the south-centre, Mr. Lamberton's to the south-east, and Mr. Davenport's to the east-centre. The suburbs were sufficiently indicated by that appellation without attaching the name of an inhabitant. In the division of out-lands the two suburbs were united together as one society or quarter. Four lots situated on East Water Street were included with. Mr. Davenport's quarter, as one of the nine quar-

ters or societies into which the town was divided for the allotment of out-lands. John Brockett seems to have been the chief surveyor ; and he doubtless is responsible for the accuracy of angles, and the equality of the nine equal sections into which he was required to cut the larger square first laid out. The dimensions of the town plot may have been determined by the course of the creeks; for George Street, if it had been continued a few rods farther west, would have crossed the West Creek, which in its course made an angle of about ninety degrees near that point.

The town-plot having been laid out, the sections into which it was cut by its streets were assigned to groups of families drawn together by social affinity, and were severally divided among those families in house-lots differing in dimensions according to a ratio depending partly on the number of persons, in the family, and partly on the amount the family had invested in the common stock of the proprietors. Among the minor benefits secured by this elective grouping, was delay in building division fences. Each quarter, being immediately enclosed by a fence separating it from the highway, was ready for tillage. These fences were sometimes of pickets and sometimes of rails. In June, 1640, prices for both kinds were established by law. Fencing with pales must be "not above two shillings a rod for felling and cleaving posts and rails, cross-cutting, hewing, mortising, digging holes, setting up and nailing on the pales, the work being in all the parts well wrought and finished; but, in this price, pales and carting of the stuff not included." "Fencing with five rails, substantial posts, good rails, well wrought, set up, and rammed,

78 that pigs, swine, goats, and other cattle may be kept out, not above two shillings a rod." A year later these rates were reduced twenty-five per cent, the reduction being probably due to the ebbing of that tide of emigration which, till the civil war in the mother-country commenced, had constantly supplied New England with money, and a market for labor as well as for cattle and other products of husbandry. There was time for building all these fences before the season had sufficiently advanced to justify the colonists in planting gardens or driving cattle across the country from Massachusetts. The cold, which had been unusually severe during the 'winter, was protracted into the months of spring. Winthrop records on the twenty-third day of April, " This was a very hard winter. The snow lay, from November 4th to March 23d, half a yard deep ab6ut the Massachusetts, and a yard deep beyond the Merrimack, and so the more north, the deeper; and the spring was very backward. This day it did snow two hours together (after much rain from the north-east) with flakes as great as shillings." Again he writes on the 2d of May, " The spring was so cold, that men were forced to plant their corn two or three times, for it rotted in the ground." But notwithstanding this un-propitious beginning, which threatened a dearth through all New England, warm weather afterward brought on corn beyond expectation ; and Quinnipiac seems to have shared in the blessing of a good harvest, so that there was no such scarcity of bread as there had been at Hartford the preceding winter, when the price of Indian corn rose to twelve shillings per bushel, which was five or six times its usual value.

While some were planting and fencing, others were preparing lumber for the erection of permanent dwellings. Having no mill for sawing, they were obliged to slit the logs by hand; and the tariff of prices prescribes how much more the "top-man, or he that guides the work and perhaps finds the tools," shall receive than "the pit-man, whose skill and charge is less." The log was first hewn square, and then placed on a frame over a pit, so that a man could stand beneath and assist in moving the saw. This department of industry demanded their earliest attention; so that the boards, being exposed to the winds of spring and the heat of summer, might be ready for the carpenter as soon as possible. The price of inch boards must not exceed five shillings and ninepence per hundred feet if sold in the woods, or seven shillings and ninepence if sold in the town. But, as this tariff was established in 1640, prices may have been somewhat less in 1638, when the town-plot furnished all the lumber required for immediate use. Indeed, the price of lumber had fallen considerably in 1641, when inch boards must not be sold above four shillings and eightpence per hundred in the woods, or above six shillings in the town.

Before winter most of the colonists who had arrived in April were living on their "house-lots, leaving their cellars or other temporary shelters for new-comers. Some of the houses, being occupied by persons of small estates, were presumably such as a Dutch traveller saw at Plymouth, and describes as block-houses built of hewn logs. Such a presumption explains an item in a bill of sale by which one of the first planters alienated his

house and house-lot and "two loads of clay brought home." The clay was doubtless to be "daubed" between the logs. From the mention of thatchers, and the precautions taken against fire, it may be inferred that these humbler tenements were roofed with thatch. Many of the houses, however, were of framed timber, and were covered with shingles or clapboards on the sides, and with shingles on the roof. Quinnipiac had a larger proportion of wealthy men than any other of the New England colonies. Some of them, having been accustomed to live in large and elegant houses in London, expended liberally in providing- new homes. It was but natural that they should wish to maintain a style not much inferior to the style in which they had formerly lived; and as they confidently thought they were founding a commercial town in a country so rich in resources that on a single cargo exported to England they could afford to pay duties to the amount of three thousand pounds, they justified themselves in a liberal expenditure in building their houses. If they had foreseen the political changes in England which after a few years turned the flow of emigration backward toward the mother-country, - even if they had known that their plantation must depend on husbandry more than on commerce,- they might have been content with less expensive dwellings. As it was, they drew upon themselves the criticism of brethren in the other colonies. Hubbard the historian, who in 1638 was seventeen years old, speaks of their "error in great buildings," and afterward says, " They laid out too much of their stocks and estates in building of fair and stately houses, wherein they at the first outdid the rest of the country." Tradi-

tion reports that the house of Theophilus Eaton was so large as to have nineteen fireplaces, and that it was lofty as well as large. Davenport's house, on the opposite side of the street, is said to have had thirteen fireplaces.1 It is not necessary to believe that any of the "fair and stately" houses in Quinnipiac were finished in 1638. If the frame were set up and covered, and'a few rooms were made ready to be occupied by the family, the remainder of the work might be postponed till the next summer.

In October the planters welcomed an accession to their number which they regarded as an earnest of still greater enlargement. - Ezekiel Rogers, a minister of high standing in Yorkshire, having embarked at Hull on the Humber, with a company who personally knew him and desired to enjoy his ministry, arrived in Boston late in the summer. Such representations were made to him by Davenport and Eaton or their agents, that he engaged to come with his followers to Quinnipiac ; and within eight weeks after his arrival in Massachusetts a portion of his people came by water to the new settlement, encountering on the voyage a storm which drove them upon a beach of sand where they lay rocking till another tide floated them off. Rogers, expecting to be joined in a year or two by some persons of rank and wealth who had been providentially thwarted in their desire to embark with him, had inserted in his engagement to take stock in the Quinnipiac company, 1 Stiles' History of the Judges. President Stiles had been, when a boy, personally familiar with the interior of the Davenport house.

certain stipulations referring to these friends for whom he was authorized to act. The nature of the stipulations cannot now be known; but, whatever they were, Rogers, who did not come to Quinnipiac with the first instalment of his company, became convinced that they would not be fulfilled to his satisfaction, and laid the matter as a case of conscience before the Massachusetts elders, who advised him that he was released from his engagement. He thereupon decided to remain in. Massachusetts, and sent a pinnace to bring back those of his company who had left him in October.

Davenport and Eaton, being less willing than the Massachusetts elders to release Rogers from his engagement, detained the pinnace, and by a special messenger despatched letters of remonstrance which seem to have staggered him, till the elders again assembling and examining all the correspondence between the parties, confirmed their former judgment. He accordingly began a plantation in Massachusetts, which received the name of Rowley, from the place where he had exercised his ministry in the mother-country. But some of his Yorkshire friends, who had gone to Quinnipiac expecting that he would follow, did not return in the pinnace he sent for them. It was now winter, and perhaps the inclemency of the season disinclined them to leave the cellars in which they were sheltered. Perhaps the storm they encountered in coming, inspired them with dread of the sea. Perhaps they were pleased with the new plantation, admiring its leaders, enjoying intercourse with its people, and participating with them in sanguine expectation of its future. For

some reason several of the Yorkshire families remained, and became permanently incorporated in the new community.

Rogers in the course of the 'next two years mentions several times, in letters to Gov. Winthrop, the losses sustained by the people of Rowley in consequence of coming back to Massachusetts. He says, "None do know (or few) what we are impoverished by this purchase, and Quinnipiac, and the failing of some expected friends." Again, "I suppose you hear of a new sad cross from Quinnipiac in Jo. Hardy's pinnace, wherein may be much of my estate for aught I know." And still later: "It hath been a trouble of late to my poor neighbors to hear of this " (that a part of Rowley was claimed by others) " after their purchase, and building, and return from Quinnipiac." These hints were preparatory to a claim which he formally made in the autumn of 1640, that this land claimed by another party as previously granted, should be confirmed to Rowley. Appealing before the court over which Winthrop was presiding, he "pleaded justice, upon some promises of large accommodations, &c., when we desired his sitting down with us." The scene that ensued when the request was refused on the ground that the land had already been granted, is in several respects instructive. The elder lost his temper, and by that means gained his cause ; for the court, after disciplining him for contempt, "freely granted what he formerly desired." ' * In one of the letters from Rogers to Winthrop cited above, he speaks of one of the New Haven planters as follows: "Sir: Mr. Lamberton did us much wrong. I expected his coming to the Bay: but it seems he site down at Quinnipiac: yet he hath a house in Boston: I would humbly crave

The next event after the arrival of the Yorkshire company, which, deserves notice, is the formal purchase of land from the Indians. The terms had been agreed upon in the winter, but no written title had been given, formalities being postponed perhaps till a more competent interpreter than any of the planters could be obtained. Thomas Stanton, of high repute for knowledge of the Indian tongue, having been employed to come from Hartford and explain the written deed to the Indian sachem and his council, it was signed by them on the 24th of November.1 Its full text is as follows, with the exception of two hiatuses where the record-book has been torn: -

" Articles of agreement between Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport and others, English planters at Quinnipiac on the one party, and Momaugin the Indian Sachem of Quinnipiac and Sugeogisin, Quesaquaush, Carroughood, Wesaucuck and others of his council on the other party, made and concluded the 24th of November 1638; Thomas Stanton being interpreter. " That he the said sachem, his council, and company do jointly profess, affirm and covenant that he the said Momaugin is the sole sachem of Quinnipiac, and hath an absolute and independent power to give, alien, dispose or sell, all or any part of the lands in Quinnipiac and that though he have a son now absent, yet neither his said son, nor any other person whatsoever hath any right, title or

your advice to Mr. Will Bellingham about it, whether we might not enter an action against him and upon proof get help by that house." This evidently refers to Rogers' disappointment in not receiving back those of his flock who staid in New Haven, and reads as if Lamberton were to be counted among them.

'In "New Haven's Case Stated "it is claimed that Stanton, at the request of the New Haven people, was sent by their friends in Connecticut to assist in this purchase, and that Connecticut had thus consented to the transaction.

interest in any part of the said lands, so that whatsoever he, the forenamed sachem, his council and the rest of the Indians present do and conclude, shall stand firm and inviolable against all claims and persons whatsoever.

" Secondly, the said sachem, his council, and company, amongst which there was a squaw sachem called Shaumpishuh, sister to the sachem, who either had or pretended some interest in some part of the land, remembering and acknowledging the heavy taxes and eminent dangers which they lately felt and'feared from the Pequots, Mohawks, and other Indians, in regard of which they durst not stay in their country, but were forced to fly and to seek shelter under the English at Connecticut, and observing the safety and ease that other Indians enjoy near the English, of which benefit they have had a comfortable taste already, since the English began to build and plant at Quinnipiac, which with all thankfulness they now acknowledged, they jointly and freely gave and yielded up all their right, title and interest to all the land, rivers, ponds, and trees with all the liberties and appurtenances belonging unto the same in Quinnipiac to the utmost of their bounds east, west, north, south, unto Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport and others, the present English planters there and to their heirs and assigns forever, desiring from them the said English planters to receive such-a portion of ground on the East side of the harbor, towards the fort at the mouth of the river of Connecticut as might be sufficient for them, being but few in number, to plant in; and yet within these limits to be hereafter assigned to them, they did covenant and freely yield up unto the said English all the meadow ground lying therein, with full liberty to choose and cut down what timber they please, for any use whatsoever, without any question, license, or consent to be asked from them the said Indians, and if, after their portion and place be limited and set out by the English as above, they the said Indians shall desire to remove to any other place within Quinnipiac bounds, but without the limits assigned them, that they do it not without leave, neither setting up any wigwam, nor breaking up any ground to plant corn, till first it be set out and appointed by the forenamed English planters for them.

" Thirdly, the said sachem, his council, and company, desiring liberty to hunt and fish within the bounds of Quinnipiac now given

and granted to the English as before, do hereby jointly covenant and bind themselves to set no traps near any place where the ... . . . whether horses, oxen, kine, calves, sheep, goats, hogs or any sort . . . . . ............. * ....... ........... ... to take any fish out of any wier belonging 'to any English, nor to do any thing near any such wier as to disturb or affright away any fish to the prejudice of such wier or wiers, and that upon discovery of any inconveniency growing to the English by the Indians disorderly hunting, their hunting shall be regulated and limited for the preventing of any inconvenience and yet with as little damage to the Indians in their hunting as may be. " Fourthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby covenant and bind themselves that none of them shall henceforth hanker about any of the English houses at any time when the English use to meet about the public worship of God; nor on the Lord's day henceforward be seen within the compass of the English town, bearing any burdens, or offering to truck with the English for any commodity whatsoever, and that none of them henceforward without leave, open any latch belonging to any Englishman's door, nor stay in any English house after warning that he should leave the same, nor do any violence, wrong, or injury to the person of the English, Whether man, woman or child, upon any pretence whatsoever, and if the English of this plantation, by themselves or cattle, do any wrong or damage to the Indians, upon complaint, just recompense shall be made by the English; and that none of them henceforward use or take any Englishman's boat or canoe of what kind soever, from the place where it was fastened or laid, without leave from the owner first had and obtained, nor that they come into the English town with bows and arrows or any other weapons whatsoever in number above six Indians so armed at a time.

" Fifthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do truly covenant and bind themselves that if any of them shall hereafter kill or hurt any English cattle of what sort soever, though casually or negligently, they shall give full satisfaction for the loss or damage as the English shall judge equal: but if any of them for any respect, wilfully do kill or hurt any of the English cattle; upon proof, they shall pay the double value: and if, at any time, any of them find

any of the English cattle straying or lost in the woods, they shall bring them back to the English plantation and a moderate price or recompense shall be allowed for their pains; provided if it can be proved that any of them drove away any of the English cattle wheresoever they find them, further from the English plantation to make an increase or advantage or recompense for his pains finding or bringing them back, they shall in any such case pay damages for such dealings.

" Sixthly, the number of the Quinnipiac Indians, men or youth grown to stature fit f6r service, being forty-seven at present, they do covenant and bind themselves not to receive or admit any other Indians amongst them without leave first had and obtained from the English, and that they will not, at any time hereafter, entertain or harbor any that are enemies to the English, but will presently apprehend such and deliver them to the English, and if they know or hear of any plot by the Indians or others against the English, they will forthwith discover and make the same known to them, and in case they do not, to be accounted as parties in the plot and to be proceeded against as such.

" Lastly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby promise truly and carefully to observe and keep all and every one of these articles of agreement; and if any of them offend in any of the promises, they jointly hereby subject and submit such offender or offenders to the consideration, censure, and punishment of the English magistrate or officers appointed among them for government, without expecting that the English should first advise with them about it: yet in any such case of punishment, if the said sachem shall desire to know the reason and equity of said proceedings, he shall truly be informed of the same.

" The former articles being read and interpreted to them, they by way of exposition desired that in the sixth article it might be added, that if any of the English cattle be killed or hurt casually, or negligently, and proof made it was done by some of the Quinnipiac Indians, they will make satisfaction, or if done by any other Indians in their sight, if they do not discover it and, if able, bring the offender to the English, they will be accounted and dealt with as guilty.

if at any time hereafter they be affrighted in their dwellings assigned by the English unto them as before, they may repair to the English plantation for shelter and that the English will then in a just cause endeavor to defend them from wrong. But in any quarrel or wars which they shall undertake or have with other Indians, upon any occasion whatsoever, they will manage their affairs by themselves without expecting any aid from the English.

" And the English planters before mentioned accepting and granting according to the tenor of the premises do further of their own aceord, by way of free and thankful retribution, give unto the said sachem, council, and company of the Quinnipiac Indians, twelve coats of English trucking cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen of knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives and scissors. All which being thankfully accepted by the aforesaid and the agreements in all points perfected, for ratification and fnll confirmation of the same, the sachem, his council, and sister, to these presents have set to their hands or marks the day and year above written.

MOMAUGIN his mark
SUGCOGISIN his mark
QUESAQUAUSH his mark
CARROUGHOOD his mark
WEESAUCUCK his mark
SHAUMPISHUH her mark"

"I, Thomas Stanton, being interpreter in this treaty, do hereby profess in the presence of God that I have fully acquainted the Indians with the substance of every article and truly returned their answer and consent to the same, according to the tenor of the foregoing writing, the truth of which, if lawfully called, I shall readily confirm by my oath at any time.

THOMAS STANTON."

On the nth of December, Montowese, sachem of another tribe, "in presence and with allowance and consent of Sauseunck, an Indian who came in company with him," sold to the English a tract of land lying north of that sold by Momaugin, and described as " extending about ten miles in length from north to south, eight miles easterly from the river of Quinnipiac toward the river of Connecticut and five miles westerly toward Hudson's river." Montowese, reserving a piece of land near the village which now bears his name, "for his men which are ten, and many squaws, to plant in," received " eleven coats of trucking cloth, and one coat of English cloth made up after the English manner," in payment for the territory thus alienated.

The attesting marks of Montowese and Sawseunck are as follows : -

"MONTOWESE *" his mark
SAWSEUNCK his mark"

At the present day we are apt to think that these sachems sold their land for a ridiculously small price; but one who attentively considers all the circumstances of the case, the reservations they made, the protection they secured, ajid the opportunity for trade afforded by the English settlement, will perhaps conclude that what they received was of greater value to them than what they sold. It does not appear that the Indians were afterward dissatisfied with the terms of sale.

Contemporaneously with the excitement among the Yorkshire people about returning to Massachusetts, there was conference among those who had come with Prudden from Hereford, tending toward a removal from Quinnipiac to a separate plantation, in which they might enjoy his ministry. What the understanding had been between his Herefordshire flock and the London men in reference to a church and church-officers at Quinnipiac, it is impossible to determine with certainty ; but, as the latter party had brought with them two ministers in whom they were interested, we may conjecture that if they encouraged the Hereford men to believe that Prudden should be their minister, they did so in expectation that he would be united with Davenport and Samuel Eaton in the eldership of the church. Trumbull relates that Prudden preached at Wethers-field during the summer of 1638; and, as a part of the first planters of Milford came from Wethersfield on account of their regard for him and some disagreement in their church, it is probable that the project of a settlement at Milford grew out of Prudden's visit to Wethersfield. Ascertaining that by uniting his friends

in Wethersfield with those who had followed him across the sea, he could become the minister of a new plantation, and stand foremost if not alone in the eldership of its church, he naturally preferred such a position to that of a colleagueship with Davenport. Prudden's friends having determined to commence a new plantation at Wepowaug, land was formally conveyed to them by a written deed subscribed by Ansan-taway the sachem of the place and by his council, Feb. 12, 1639. Lambert relates that "a twig and a piece of turf being brought to the sagamore, he placed the end of the branch in the clod, and then gave it to the English as a token that he thereby surrendered to them the soil, with all the trees and appurtenances." But, though the land was bought in February, the projected plantation was not commenced till autumn, so that those who intended to remove from Quinnipiac remained in their houses through the summer, and cultivated their fields as they had done the previous year.

We find nothing more on record concerning the first winter at Quinnipiac, except that two vessels, bound thither from Boston, were cast away in December, there being, says Winthrop, "so great a tempest of wind and snow, all the night and the next day, as had not been since our time." We may conjecture that the work of removal was not yet entirely accomplished, - that some who had come from Massachusetts in the preceding spring, and had spent the summer and autumn in the erection of houses, were now transporting to their new homes comforts for which there had been no place in their summer habitations.

CHAPTER VI.
FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.

Spring of 1639 found the plantation at Quin-nipiac no farther advanced in its ecclesiastical or its civil organization than on the morrow after its "first day of extraordinary humiliation." Its public property was still managed by the members, or in ordinary cases, by the officers, of the joint-stock association. Civil government was administered, if at all, by a democracy acknowledging no authority but that of God, and no constitution but God's word as contained in the Scriptures. Public worship was regularly offered, but no church had been instituted and no sacraments had been celebrated. Several reasons may be suggested for the slowness with which the planters came to the work of organization. They had much to occupy their minds and hands during the first summer, in providing for the approaching winter. During the winter the Yorkshire people were exercised in mind with the question, whether they should remain, or go back to Massachusetts, and, till this question was decided, were not ready to unite with any church. The leading men in the plantation would naturally prefer to wait for their decision, rather than to proceed immediately with an

organization which did not include so desirable an addition. The Hereford men began in the autumn, and perhaps late in the summer, to think of removing, and by midwinter had purchased land at Milford, and thus were fully committed. So long as they were hesitating, their brethren would wait for their decision as they had done for that of the Yorkshire people, though with a different feeling toward their proposal to remove. There is no reason to believe that the people of Quinnipiac were unwilling that a new plantation should be established a few miles west of their own; for, if their population should be thereby somewhat diminished, those who removed would still be near them, and would draw to the neighborhood a considerable accession of planters. So far as appears, Prudden and Davenport were as much at one in their plans after the former had decided to establish a new plantation, as before. We may find another reason for the slowness with which the planters came to the work of laying foundations of Church and State, in the difference of opinion which prevailed among them in regard to such foundations. Some had been non-conforming members of the Church of England; others had separated themselves from the national church while still residing in the mother-country. In other words, there were in the colony both Puritans and Separatists. But, so far as concerns church organization, these two classes were practically agreed. As the Puritans of Massachusetts felt themselves obliged to follow the example of the Separatists at Plymouth in organizing their churches, so at Quinnipiac those who had never yet belonged to

a Congregational church saw that such a church was the only ecclesiastical organization possible to them in their circumstances. There was a difference of opinion, however, in the colony, on the question whether civil authority should be confined to men who were in communion with the church; and this difference was to a great extent coincident with the division into the two classes of Puritans and Separatists. The Puritan planters of Massachusetts relinquished episcopacy because they did not see their way clear to retain it; but they would not relinquish the old English idea that the State should be governed by Christians only, and that the Christian character thus required should be certified by the Church. Following the Separatists at Plymouth in organizing their churches, they would not follow them in admitting to the elective franchise planters who were not church-members. The English idea long prevailed in Massachusetts ; but the Plymouth or Separatist belief that church-membership is not an essential qualification of free burgesses gradually gained adherents. When the river-towns in Connecticut were planted by emigrants from Massachusetts, so much progress had been made from the Puritan toward the Separatist theory, that church-membership was never required in the colony of Connecticut as a qualification for the elective franchise. There being in the colony at Quinnipiac some who belonged to Congregational churches, and some who had never separated from the Church of England, there was a tendency in these two classes to divide on the question whether civil authority should be confined to members of the church. The Separatists desired to lay

the foundations of both Church and State in accordance with the Plymouth model. Their leader, Samuel Eaton, stood up for the principle that all free planters, that is, proprietors in the plantation, however they might delegate authority, should have power to resume it into their own hands. But Davenport, who had never been a Separatist, and would have been content to remain in the Establishment if only his party had been in the ascendant, stoutly defended with Scriptural arguments the position that the power of choosing magistrates, of making and repealing laws, of dividing inheritances, and of deciding differences, should be vested in church-members. In the course of the debate between them Davenport wrote a treatise, afterward printed and still extant, entitled, "A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation whose Design is Religion." Ultimately the views of Davenport prevailed over all opposition, but not till a long time had been consumed in the discussion. On the fourth day of June, 1639, a meeting of all the proprietors, or free planters as they were called, was held in the barn of Mr. Robert Newman, "to consult about settling civil government according to God, and about the nomination of persons that might be found by consent of all, fittest in all respects for the foundation work of a church." In reporting this meeting we shall chiefly use the language of the contemporary record: - "For the better enabling them to discern the mind of God and to agree accordingly concerning the establishment of civil order, Mr. John Davenport propounded divers queries to them, publicly praying them to consider seriously in the presence and fear of God

the weight of the business they met about, and not to be rash or slight in giving their votes to things they understood not, but to digest fully and thoroughly what should be propounded to them, and without respect to men, as they should be satisfied and persuaded in their own. minds, to give their answers in such sort as they would be willing they should stand upon record for posterity." At the earnest request of Mr. Davenport, - \ "Mr. Robert Newman was entreated to write in characters and to read distinctly and audibly in the hearing of all the people what was propounded and accorded on, that it might appear that all consented to matters propounded, according to words written by him." Mr. Davenport then proposed his queries as follows : - "QUERY i.-Whether the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect • rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well in the government of families and commonwealths as in matters of the church. "This was assented unto by all, no man dissenting, as was expressed by holding up of hands. Afterward it was read over to them that they might see in what words their vote was expressed. They again expressed their consent thereto by holding up their hands, no man dissenting. " QUERY 2. - Whereas there was a covenant solemnly made by the whole assembly of free planters of this plantation the first day of extraordinary humiliation which we had after we came together, that as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we would all of us be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds forth to us (this covenant was called a plantation covenant to distinguish it from a church covenant which could not at that time be made, a church not being then gathered, but was deferred till a church might be gathered according to God); it was demanded

whether all the free planters do hold themselves bound by that covenant in all business of that nature which are expressed in the covenant to submit themselves to be ordered by the rules held forth in the Scripture. "This also was assented to by all, and no man gainsaid it, and they did testify the same by holding up their hands, both when it was first propounded, and confirmed the same by holding up their hands when it was read unto them in public. John Clarke, being absent when the covenant was made, doth now manifest his consent to it: also Richard Beach, Andrew Low, Goodman Banister, Arthur Halbidge, John Potter, Robert Hill, John Brockett, and John Johnson, being not admitted planters when the covenant was made, do now express their consent to it. "QUERY 3. - Those who have been received as free planters and are settled in the plantation with a purpose, resolution and desire that they may be admitted into church fellowship according to Christ as soon as God shall fit them thereunto, were desired to express it by holding up of hands: accordingly all did express this to be their desire and purpose by holding up their hands twice, viz., both at the proposal of it, and after when these written words were read unto them." • The response to this question is instructive, as it shows that all the proprietors were earnestly religious men, were desirous of being admitted to the communion of the church, and, if they had not already become conscious of spiritual enlightenment wrought in them by the Spirit of God, were hoping for such an experience to qualify them for such admission. The "purpose, resolution, and desire" to be admitted into church-fellowship thus unanimously declared, prepare us to learn with less astonishment that in response to the fifth query, to which those that preceded logically conducted, they voted to confine the elective franchise to church-members.

"QUERY 4.-All the free planters were called upon to express whether they held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinances to themselves and their posterity according to God. In answer hereunto they expressed by holding up their hands twice as before, that they held themselves bound to establish such as might best conduce to the ends aforesaid." After some remarks by Mr. Davenport, the fifth query was propounded as follows : - "QUERY 5. - Whether free burgesses shall be chosen out of church members, they that are in the foundation work of the church being actually free burgesses and to choose to themselves out of the like estate of church fellowship: and the power of choosing magistrates and officers from among themselves, and the power of making and repealing laws according to the word, and the dividing of inheritances, and deciding of differences that may arise, and all the businesses of like nature are to be transacted by those free burgesses. "This was put to vote and agreed unto by the lifting up of hands twice as in the former it was done. Then one man stood up after the vote was past, expressing his dissent from the rest in part, yet granting ist, That magistrates should be men fearing God; 2d, That the church is the company whence ordinarily such men may be expected; 3d, That they that choose them ought to be men fearing God: only at this he stuck that free planters ought not to give this power out of their hands. Another stood up and answered that in this case nothing was done but with their consent. The former answered that all the free planters ought to resume this power into their own hands again if things were not orderly carried. Mr. Theophilus Eaton answered that in all places they choose committees; in like manner the companies of London choose the liveries by whom the public magistrates are chosen. In this the rest are not wronged, because*, they expect in time to be of the livery themselves and to have the same power. Some others entreated the former to give his arguments and reasons whereupon he dissented. He refused to do it, and said they might

not rationally demand it, seeing he let the vote pass on freely and did not speak till after it was past, because he would not hinder what they agreed upon. Then Mr. Davenport, after a short relation of some former passages between them two' about this question, prayed the company that nothing might be concluded by them in this mighty question but what themselves were persuaded to be agreeing with the mind pf God, and [as] they had heard what had been said since the voting, entreated them again to consider of it and put it again to vote as before." The assembly having again unanimously assented, and some who had previously leaned to the opposite side, or halted between the two opinions, having given vocal expression to their confidence that the action taken was "according to the mind of God revealed in the Scriptures:-" "Mr. Robert Newman was desired to write it as an order, where-unto every one that hereafter should be admitted here as planters should submit and testify the same by subscribing their names to the order, namely, that church-members only shall -be free burgesses, and that they only shall choose magistrates and officers among themselves." The elective franchise being thus limited to church-members, the assembly proceeded to consider and determine what method they should pursue in organizing their church: - "Mr. Davenport advised that the names of such as were to be admitted might be publicly propounded, to the end that they who 1 Although the name of the "one man" who dissented is not given in the record, there can be no doubt that it was Samuel Eaton. Mather records the tradition that it was he; and the treatise of Davenport bears internal evidence that it was addressed to one of his clerical friends in the plantation, that is to Eaton or Piudden. But Prudden could not have been the dissentient speaker to the assembly in Mr. Newman's barn; for he and his company, having resolved to remove, took no part in laying the foundations of civil order in Quinnipiac. 100 were most approved might be chosen; for the town being cast into several private meetings, wherein they that dwelt' nearest together gave their accounts one to another of God's gracious work upon them, and prayed together and conferred to their mutual edification, sundry of them had knowledge one of another, and in every meeting some one was more approved of all than any other. For this reason and to avoid scandals, the whole company was entreated to consider whom they found fittest to nominate for this work." The sixth query was then read in these words, viz.: - " Whether are, you all willing and do agree in this, that twelve men be chosen that their fitness for the foundation work may be tried; however there may be more named, yet it may be in their power who are chosen to reduce them to twelve, and it be in the power of those twelve to choose out of themselves seven that shall be most approved of the major part to begin the church. " This was agreed upon by consent of all, as was expressed by holding up of hands, and that so many as should be thought fit for the foundation work of the church shall be propounded by the plantation and. written down and pass without exception unless they had given public scandal or offence; yet so as in case of public scandal or offence, every one should have liberty to propound their exceptions at that time publicly against any man that should be nominated when all their names should be written down; but if the offence were private, that men's names might be tendered, so many as were offended were entreated to deal with the offender privately, and if he gave not satisfaction, to bring the matter to the twelve that they might consider of it impartially and in the fear of God. The names of the persons nominated and agreed upon were Mr. Theophilus Eaton, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Robert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. Richard Malbon, Mr. Nathanael Turner, Ezekiel Gheever, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, William Andrews and Jeremiah Dixon.1 No exception was brought against any of those in public, except one about taking an excessive rate for meal

1 The registrar omitted one of the twelve names. Was the name of the penitent extortioner designedly dropped, or was the omission accidental?

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which he sold to one of Pequonock in his need, which he confessed with grief, and declared that having been smitten in heart and troubled in his conscience, he restored such a part of the price back again with confession of his sin to the:party as he thought himself bound to do. And it being feared that the report of the sin was heard farther than the report of his satisfaction, a course was concluded on to make the satisfaction known to as many as heard of the sin. It was also agreed upon at the said meeting that if the persons above named did find themselves straitened in the number of fit men for the seven, that it should be free for them to take into trial of fitness tsuch other as they should think meet, provided that it should be signified to the town, upon the Lord's day, whom they so take in, that every man may be satisfied of them according to the course formerly taken." In due time the twelve thus appointed chose out of their own number the following seven, as "most approved of the major part, to begin the church," namely, Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon. "By these seven persons, covenanting together, and then receiving others into their fellowship, the first church of Christ in New Haven was gathered and constituted on the 22d of August, 1639." r On the 25th of October these seven proceeded to , organize themselves as a civil court, proceeding as follows, " after solemn prayer unto God :" - "First: All former power or trust for managing any public affairs in this plantation, into whose hands soever formerly committed, was now abrogated and from henceforward utterly to cease.

1 Bacon's Hist. Dis., p. 24. Dr. Bacon ascertains the date from the records of the First Church in Milford, which was gathered in New Haven, where its members still resided, and, as the local tradition says, on the same day with the New Haven church. Mather (Mag., Book III., ch. 6) records the tradition somewhat differently, giving to each church one of two consecutive days employed in the formalities of institution.

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"Secondly: All those that have been received into the fellowship of this church since the gathering of it, or who, being members of other approved churches, offered themselves, were admitted as members of this court: namely, Mr. Nathanael Turner, William Andrews and Mr. Cheever, members of this church; Mr. Samuel Eaton, John Clark, Lieutenant Seeley, John Chapman, Thomas Jeffrey, and Richard Hull, members of other approved churches." The court then proceeded to choose Theophilus Eaton "magistrate for the term of one whole year;" and Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Nathanael Turner, and Thomas Fugill, "deputies to assist the magistrate in all courts called by him for the occasions of the plantation for the same term of one whole year." Thomas Fugill was chosen clerk, and Robert Seeley marshal. "It was further agreed that there should be a renewing of the choice of all officers every year at a general court to be held for this plantation the last week in October yearly; and that the word of God shall be the only rule to be attended unto in ordering the affairs of government in this plantation." The formal institution of civil authority may have been hastened by foresight of an event which immediately followed; for, the next day after the magistrate had been clothed with power, an Indian named Nepau-puck was brought before him upon his warrant, charged with the murder of an Englishman at Wethersfield. A few days afterward a general court was assembled, and the prisoner was brought before it for trial. Being found guilty upon evidence so clear that he confessed his guilt, he was condemned to death. " Accordingly his head was cut off the next day, and pitched upon a pole in the market-place."

CHAPTER VII

. DIVISION OF LAND.

W E have already seen that immediately after the town-plot was laid out, a house-lot was assigned to every free planter; by which appellation a person who had invested in the common property of the plantation was distinguished from other inhabitants. These house-lots were so large as to require, in most cases, all the labor their owners could give to husbandry during the first two summers. The few who needed more land for cultivation were allowed to plant in "the neck" between Mill River and Quinnipiac River. So desirable did the proprietors regard the increase of population, that they not only made the quantity of land thus assigned to a free planter to depend partly on the number of persons in his family, but also freely assigned a small lot on the outside of the town-plot to every householder in the plantation who desired to become a permanent resident, but was unable to purchase a share in the common property. The number of householders thus gratuitously supplied with house-lots was in the beginning thirty-two. Others were afterward added.

In January, 1640, arrangements were made for the division of the neck, the salt meadows, and a tract which, extending in every direction about a mile from

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the town, was called the two-miles-square. The division was so arranged that every free planter should have some land in the neck, some in the meadows, and some in the upland of the two-miles-square.

Out of the last-mentioned tract certain reservations were made; and the remainder was divided into nine parts, one for each of the nine quarters into which the town was divided, each quarter in the town having its out-lands as nearly as possible contiguous to itself. In consequence of this arrangement, these sections of out-lands were also called quarters ; and, there being more occasion for using the term in connection with the out-lands than the home-lots, it came by degrees to be applied almost exclusively to them in later records.

Commencing with the east-centre, or Mr. Davenport's quarter, let us connect the nine quarters with out-lands assigned to them respectively in the first division. The out-lands of Mr. Davenport's quarter were bounded by Chapel Street, Grand Street, a line about three hundred feet east of State Street, and Mill River. Mr. Baton's quarter was bounded by Grand Street, State Street (or, as it was called, Neck Lane), a line in continuation of that just mentioned, described as three hundred feet east of State Street, and the meadows bordering on Mill River. Mr. Newman's quarter was bounded by Neck Lane, Mill Lane (as Orange Street was called), Grove Street, and the meadows bordering on Mill River. Mr. Tench's quarter, lying between Mill Lane and Prospect Street, extended outward from Grove Street so far as was necessary to furnish every planter in the quarter with his proportionate allotment.

It will be seen, that, while Mr. Davenport's quarter

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had their out-lands near .their home-lots, Mr. Tench's cut-land quarter only touched his town quarter, and that, if the out-lands of the next quarter had been assigned so as to be contiguous to those of Mr. Tench's quarter, they would have been far distant from the home-lots to which they belonged. This difficulty was solved by the sequestration of land lying west of Prospect Street, for common use. This tract included the cow-pasture, the ox-pasture, the Beaver-pond meadows, and a field farther west than these, which remained unfenced, and was called the Common.

By means of this sequestration, the out-lands of the Yorkshire quarter were so assigned that they were immediately contiguous to the house-lots to which they belonged, lying between the common land on the north and Chapel Street on the south, and extending from York Street westward to or beyond West River. The Herefordshire quarter, lying between Chapel Street and Oak Street, extended from York Street to or beyond the river. Mr. Gregson's out-land quarter lay south of the Herefordshire quarter, and, was bounded on the east by the road to Milford, which passed through Broad Street and Davenport Avenue, as they are now named. Next was the suburbs quarter, between Milford Road and Washington Street. Last in our enumeration, Mr. Lamberton's quarter covered all the land between Washington Street and the harbor.

There still remained within the two-miles-square four reservations besides those which have been mentioned: viz., one called the market-place; another containing so much of the land bordering on the West Creek as had not been allotted to persons who were not proprietors;

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a third containing the land bordering on the East Creek; a fourth called Oyster-shell Field, east of the East Creek reservation, and comprehended between Chapel Street and a line about three hundred feet north of East Water Street. The last-named tract was leased from year to year to persons who desired to cultivate more land than they owned. The reserved land on both sides of the two creeks was either allotted in small parcels to persons who were not proprietors, or was reserved to be so disposed of when there should "tre occasion.

In the first division of out-lands, no provision was made for those who had been gratuitously supplied with house-lots; but in the second division the rule was adopted to allot "six acres for a single person, eight acres for a man and his wife, with an acre added for every child they have at present." If they accepted these out-lands, they were to pay taxes on them as other planters did, at the rate of twopence per acre; and " if any of them, satisfied with their trades, or not liking the place of their allotment,'shall refuse or neglect to take up the land, yet every one admitted to be a planter shall pay twelvepence a year to the treasurer toward public charges."

The out-lands thus assigned to each of the nine quarters were subdivided according to the same rule of division which had obtained in the division of the town quarters; every planter having " a proportion of land according to the proportion of estate which he hath given in, and number of heads in his family." Five acres were allowed for every hundred pounds of estate, and an equal quantity for every two heads. These sub-

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divisions, however, were not separated one from another by division fences; but ea£h quarter was enclosed by a common fence, for his proportion of which every proprietor was responsible. As might be expected, much legislation and frequent fines were necessary to keep these fences sufficient for the protection of the enclosures from the forays of hungry cattle.

The meadows were sufficient to afford five acres for every hundred pounds of estate and half an acre for every head, and an addition in quantity to some allotments where the quality' was inferior. The neck was divided so as to give one acre for every hundred pounds, and half an acre for every head.

Some months after this division was ordered, and, as it would seem, before it was consummated, a second allotment was made, disposing of those portions of the common property which lay outside of the two-miles-square. At a general court held the 23d of October, 1640, it was "ordered that in the second division every planter in the town shall have for every hundred pounds of estate given in, twenty acres of upland, and for every head,two acres and a half."

The sequestered lands were held as common property for many years, but were ultimately divided, one portion after another, till, with some unimportant exceptions, only the market-place was held in common. After the second division of lands, and probably in fulfilment of an order passed at the general court mentioned above, that " all the upland in the first division, with all the meadows in the plantation, shall pay fourpence an acre yearly; and all the land in the second division shall pay twopence an acre yearly, at two several days of payment,

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viz., the one in April, and the other in October, to raise a common stock or public treasury," the following schedule was prepared, exhibiting the name of every proprietor, the number of persons in his family, the amount of his estate, and the number of acres belonging to him in each of four classes of land; viz., the first division of upland, the neck, the meadows, and the second division of upland. The eighth and last column shows the amount of his annual tax. The schedule, though prepared before April, 1641, is found in the record-book amid the records of 1643. It is not easy to determine whether it was copied into the record-book in 1643, after some changes had been made corresponding with changes of title ; or was recorded when first prepared, the secretary reserving for his report of the court's proceedings the thirty pages which precede it.1

This schedule furnishes important aid in determining who were proprietors of the town in the first years of its history, the social importance of each so far as the measure of his wealth determined it, and, when studied in connection with the land-records of the town, the location of his house-lot. The schedule disposes the proprietors into eleven groups; eight of which occupied the eight squares surrounding the market-place; another group, consisting of only four, had their dwellings on East Water Street, fronting the harbor; the remaining two inhabited the two blocks of land of irregular shape, called suburbs.

1 " Mr. Crane resigned Mr. Hickock's lot into the town's hand," Sept. 30, 1641; yet the lot stands in Mr. Hickock's name. There is so much probability that the schedule was recorded before the collection of the rate due in April, 1641, that it will be designated as the schedule of 1641.

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Commencing with this distribution of the proprietors into groups, and studying the land-records of the town, one may assign to almost every proprietor his house-lot in respect of location and, approximately, of measure. The map opposite the title-page was drawn with these 112 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. aids.1 It locates the house-lots of all the proprietors except eleven. Of the thirty-two non-proprietors, seven had " small lots " given them on East Water Street, east of the lots of the four proprietors who lived on that street, and twenty-five were accommodated between George Street and the West Creek.

While the division of lands was in progress, the name of the plantation^was changed, by order of a general court held on the first day of September, 1640, from Quin-nipiac to New Haven. There is no reason for believing that any of the planters came from the port of that name on the southern shore of England, and the record gives no clew to the reasons which influenced the court in

1 The author of this history is alone responsible for the map; but he thankfully acknowledges his obligation to Henry White, Esq., for the use of manuscript volumes which trace the land-titles from the original to the present proprietors, and for assistance in the solution of difficult problems. He feels some degree of confidence in regard to all the eleven groups, except that occupying the suburb on the west side of West Creek. Several transfers of title occurred in this group before the recording of alienations was imperative, and the shape of the quarter has been so changed that its original boundaries have not been ascertained. Only three, therefore, of the proprietors, in this quarter have been located on the map; namely, William Ives, George Smith, and Widow Sherman. •

The dotted lines on the map represent fences of uncertain location. A street, cut from the corner of George and York Streets through to Oak Street, would be in line with Oak Street, and I am credibly informed that there was such a street; but how Mr. Gregson's quarter was bounded, on the side toward the town, I cannot determine. The dotted lines on one side of the suburb lying west of West Creek are nearly coincident with the lines of Lafayette Street; but I am told that Lafayette is a modern street. There must have been an ancient lane nearly coincident with it, since one of the lots is described in 1679 as bounded east by the street (Hill Street), and " west by the way that goeth down to Jonathan Lamson's lot on the bankside."

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naming their plantation. In dropping the aboriginal designation, and adopting one familiar to Englishmen, they followed the custom of their time. They did it perhaps partly for their own pleasure, but more for the gratification of friends ; for in the course of two years, use must have greatly diminished the uncouthness, to English ears, of the Indian name. A letter of Davenport to his early friend and pktron, Lady Vere, is extant, in which he speaks of the arrival, in the summer of 1639, °f the first ship from England; and in it he says, " The sight of the harbor did so please the captain of the ship, and all the passengers, that he called it the Fair Haven." Perhaps this attempt of the English captain to give an English name occasioned the formal action of the court a twelvemonth afterward, which is thus recorded, "This town now called New Haven." Perhaps, also, this ship which first cast anchor in the harbor of New Haven, bringing passengers from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, had weighed anchor in the port of that name on the coast of Sussex.

Atwater - Chapter 8

CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.

With the map in hand, let us survey the town, and review the list of proprietors. As we pass around the several quarters, perhaps no time will be more suitable for such information in regard to the colonists as is obtainable and of sufficient importance to be recorded.

Commencing with the north-east quarter, we find a large part of it owned by Gov. Eaton and his relations. The governor's homestead was on Elm Street, about equidistant from the corners of the square. Here he lived with his wife, his mother, his four children, and the two sons of his wife by her first husband. In later years Mrs. Hopkins, wife of Edward Hopkins, the governor of Hartford, having become incurably insane, spent much time in the family under the care of her mother.1 Several young persons of both sexes, wards

1 Winthrop writes in his diary April 13, 1645: " Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecticut, came to Boston and brought his wife with him (a godly young woman and of special parts), who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of her, was loath to grieve her; but he saw his error when it was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are stronger, &c., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her."

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of Eaton, also found a home under his roof. In addition, there was, as appears from the.records, a numerous retinue of servants for the work of the house and of the field. Mather says that the family sometimes consisted of not less than thirty persons. The New Haven Colony Historical Society has in its possession a portrait said to have belonged to the Eaton family. It was painted in 1635, and in the twenty-fifth year of the age of the lady whom it pictures. In one corner is a coat of arms, which, in connection with the dates, may determine whether it represents Mrs. Hopkins, the daughter of Mrs. Eaton by her first husband, or Mary, the daughter of Gov. Eaton by his

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first wife, or some other lady. At present the question is in suspense. The principal apartment of the dwelling-house, denominated, as in the mother-country, the hall, was the first to be entered. It was sufficiently spacious to accommodate the whole family when assembled at meals and at prayers. It contained, according to the inventory taken after the governor's decease, "a drawing-table," "a round table," "green cushions," "a great chair with needlework," "high chairs," "high stools," "low chairs," "low stools," "Turkey carpets," "high wine stools," and "great brass andirons." "The parlor," probably adjoining the hall and having windows opening upon the street, served as a withdraw-ing-room, to which the elder members of the family and their guests retired from the crowd and bustle of the hall. But, according to the fashion of the time, the parlor contained the furniture of a bedroom, and was occasionally used as the sleeping-apartment of a guest. Mather, speaking of Eaton's manner of life, says that " it was his custom when he first rose in the morning to repair unto his study; " and again, that, "being a great reader, all the time he could spare from company and business, he commonly spent in his beloved study." There is no mention in the inventory of " the study," but perhaps the apartment referred to by Mather was described by the appraisers as "the counting-house," the two names denoting that it was used both as a library and as an office. If these three rooms filled the front of the mansion, the reader may locate behind them at his own discretion the winter-kitchen, the summer-kitchen, the buttery, the

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pantry, - offices necessarily implied, even if not mentioned as connected with an extensive homestead of the seventeenth century, - and then add the brew-house and the warehouse, both mentioned in the inventory. Of the sleeping-apartments in the second story, the green chamber, so called from the color of its drapery, was chief in the expensiveness and elegance of its furniture, and presumably in its size, situation, and wainscoting. The walls of the blue chamber were hung with tapestry, but the green drapery was of better quality than the blue. The blue chamber had a Turkey carpet, but the appraisers set a higher value on the carpet in the green chamber. All the other sleeping-rooms were furnished each with a feather-bed of greater or less value, but the green chamber had a bed of down. In this chamber, probably, was displayed the silver basin and ewer, double gilt, and curiously wrought with gold, which the Fellowship of Eastland Merchants had presented to Mrs. Eaton, in acknowledgment of her husband's services as their agent in the countries about the Baltic. The appraisers valued it at forty pounds sterling, but did not put it in the inventory because Mrs. Eaton claimed it as "her proper estate." There was in the house, in addition to the bowl and ewer, plate to the value of one hundred and seven pounds, eleven shillings, sterling. Taking into consideration all that we know of the house and furniture, we must conclude with Hubbard, that the governor "maintained a port in some measure answerable to his place." Samuel Eaton, who owned and occupied the land between his brother's premises and State Street, ob-

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taining in 1640 from the court a grant of Totoket, "for such friends as he shall bring over from old England, and upon such terms as shall be agreed betwixt himself and the committee chosen to that purpose," sailed for the mother-country, to return with a band of colonists and settle a new plantation at Branford. But he found •his friends well pleased with the new condition of affairs in England, and unwilling to emigrate. He himself, preferring to remain in his native land, sent a power-of-attorney to his brother; by whom the corner-lot, which had been Samuel Baton's, was sold in 1649 to Francis Newman. It afterward became the property of James Bishop, and remained in his family more than two centuries. Edward Hopkins, though he settled in Hartford, was one of the first proprietors of Quinnipiac. At a court held the third day of November, 1639, the town ordered, "that Mr. Hopkins shall have two hogsheads of lime for his present use, and as much more as will finish his house as he now intends it, he thinking that two hogsheads more will serve." One can scarcely doubt that Mr. Hopkins's house was in the same quarter with that of his beloved father-in-law; but the tax-schedule of 1641 does not contain his name, and there is no existing record of the alienation of the house and land. The order concerning the lime seems to imply that he had made some change in his intentions, and we may infer that his determination to settle in Hartford was formed after the house was begun and before it was finished. Having spent some time in Connecticut, while his fellow-passengers in the Hector were sojourning in Massachusetts, he did not rejoin them when they re-

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moved to Quinnipiac, though he retained his interest as a joint-proprietor in their plantation. Becoming gradually adherent to Connecticut, where he sat as a deputy in the General Court as early as March, 1638, and was chosen to assist in the magistracy in April, 1639, he probably sold his estate in New Haven before the tax-schedule of 1641 was written; but which of the proprietors in the governor's quarter succeeded him, cannot be determined. Though removed from daily intercourse with Eaton, he cherished such love for him to the end of life, that, as he lay on his death-bed in England, he said, "How often have I pleased myself with thoughts of a joyful meeting with my father Eaton! I remember with what pleasure he would come down the street, that he might meet me when I came from Hartford to New Haven; but with how much greater pleasure shall we shortly meet one another in heaven !" In his will, after providing for his " poor distressed wife," and giving to friends tokens of his affection, he bequeathed his estate to trustees for the promotion of liberal education in New England. The Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven owes its existence to this bequest. Although we cannot determine with certainty where Mr. Hopkins's house was situated, it is a plausible conjecture that he alienated his land and buildings to William Tuttle, who, in 1641, owned the lot on the corner of Grove and State Streets. Mr. Tuttle, who came over in the Planter in 1635, was, in April, 1639, still a resident of Boston, as appears from the baptism of one of his children there on the seventh day of that month ; but some time in the same year he removed to'

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Quinnipiac, for he signed the fundamental agreement before it was copied into the record-book. Although not a member of the court, he was active and influential in public affairs. " His daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Richard Edwards of Hartford, and the mother of Rev. Timothy Edwards of East Windsor, who numbered among his children the greatest of American metaphysicians and ten daughters, "every one of which has been said to be six feet tall, making sixty feet of daughters, all of them strong in mind." ' The lot on Grove Street, adjoining Mr. Tuttle's, belonged to the mother of Theophilus and Samuel Eaton; but, as she was an inmate of the governor's family, probably no buildings were erected while it was in her possession. She sold it, in 1646, to Richard Perry. West of Mrs. Eaton's land was that of David Yale, who, when the schedule of 1641 was written, was still unmarried. In 1645 he purchased a house in Boston, where his second child was born the same year. While residing in Bostdn he distinguished himself as a friend of the Church of England, joining with a few others in a petition for liberty to use its liturgy. A few years later he returned to the mother-country, where he remained to the end of life. To his care his still insane sister was committed by Gov.-Hopkins, when he died in 1657. He was the father'of Elihu Yale, for whom Yale College was named. Ezekiel Cheever, who lived at the corner of Grove and Church Streets, came in the Hector from London, where he was born, Jan. 25, 1615. He opened a school in his own house a few months after he arrived

1 Semi-centennial sermon of Rev. Joab Brace, D.D.

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at Quinnipiac with the main company of planters, and was thenceforth the schoolmaster of the plantation, receiving for some time a yearly stipend of twenty pounds, which, in 1644, was increased to thirty pounds. He was one of the twelve chosen for the foundation work of the Church and State, and, though never ordained to the ministry, occasionally preached. Both in the field of education and in the field of theology he was an author, having written "A Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue," which he called an "Accidence," and a book on the millennium, under the title " Scripture Prophecies Explained." He was chosen a member of the Court for the plantation at its first session, when it was instituted by the seven appointed for that purpose, and, in 1646, was one of the deputies to the General Court of the Jurisdiction. Dissenting from the judgment of the church and its elders, in respect to some cases'of discipline, he commented on their action with such severity that he was himself censured in 1649.* Soon after this, and perhaps on account of it, he removed from New Haven, and, according to Mather, "died in Boston, August 21, 1708, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, after he had been a skilful, painful, faithful schoolmaster for seventy years." President Stiles mentions two aged clergymen of his acquaintance who had been pupils of Cheever, one of whom said, "that he wore a long white beard, terminating in a point; that, when he stroked his beard to the point, it was a sign to the boys to stand clear."

Nathanael Turner, whose home-lot was on Church

' In Conn. Hist. Soc., Coll. I., may be seen the "Trial of Ezekiel Cheever, before the Church at New Haven."

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Street, next south of Mr. Cheever's, came from England with Winthrop in 1630, and was one of the most considerable citizens of Lynn, representing the town in the first General Court of Massachusetts. In January, 1637, his house was destroyed by fire, "with all that was in it save the persons;" and this event happening the same year that tidings came of " that famous place called Quinnipiac," with " a fair river, fit for harboring of ships," and "rich and goodly meadows," may have occasioned his removal from Lynn. Having had military experience as an officer in the Pequot war, he was from the beginning intrusted with " the command and ordering of all martial affairs" in the new plantation. To facilitate the performance of this trust it was ordered by the Court " that Capt. Turner shall have his lot of meadow and upland where he shall choose it for his own convenience, that he may attend the service of the town which his place requires." He accordingly located a farm about three miles from the market-place, between East Rock and Quinnipiac River. After his death, if not before, his family resided at the farm. He was lost at sea in " the great ship " which sailed from New Haven in January, 1646.

Richard Perry, the only proprietor in Mr. Baton's quarter who has not been mentioned, lived at the corner of Church and Elm Streets. Having married Mary, the daughter of Richard Malbon, in the old country, he accompanied his father-in-law from London to New Haven. He took an active part in the public affairs of the plantation, and in 1646, when Fugill, the secretary of the court, had fallen into disgrace, was chosen to succeed him in that office. He sold his house to

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Thomas Kimberly in 1649, and after that date his name does not occur in the records. Passing from the north-east square to the east-centre square, we find Mr. Davenport's lot on the corner of Elm and State Streets, and his house on Elm Street, nearly opposite Mr. Baton's./ Here the pastor and his wife received their only child after a separation from him of more than two years; the child having been left in England, and brought over by a maid-servant in a ship, which, in the summer of 1639, sailed from England direct for the harbor of Quinnipiac.

Richard Malbon lived on State Street, his lot being next south of Mr. Davenport's. He was one of the London merchants who came with Eaton and Davenport, was one of the twelve chosen for the foundation of Church and State, and one of the five whom the

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twelve sifted out of that number by their own action before the foundation was laid. For some reason, probably for want of church-membership, he was not admitted a member of the court till February, 1642; but only two months after he was made a freeman, he was chosen one of four deputies for the half-year ensuing to assist the magistrates " by way of advice', but not to have any power by way of sentence," and was the first-named of the four. Such a limitation was expressly put upon the deputies in the October election of that year, and was. probably implied in the election six months before. In this office he was continued for a long time by re-election, and, after the organization of the Colonial Government, was often a deputy to represent the plantation in the General Court of the Jurisdiction. In 1646 he was appointed by that body, one of its magistrates in New Haven. The town manifested its confidence in him as a military officer by appointing him " to order the watches and all the martial affairs of this plantation," during Capt. Turner's absence at the Delaware Bay in 1642; and again, when Turner was about to embark in the ill-fated ship of 1646, by choosing Malbon " captain, with liberty to resign his place to Capt. Turner at his return." Mr. Malbon was an enterprising merchant, trading coastwise and in the West Indies. He was als6 one of "the company of merchants of New Haven," who chartered for a voyage to England the ship in which the town lost so much property and so many valuable lives.

Next south of the Malbon house was that of Thomas Nash, formerly a member of the church in Leyden, Holland, and one of the five who wrote from that city in

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1625, to their brethren in Plymouth, informing them of the death of John Robinson, pastor of the church which included in its membership the planters of Plymouth, as well as the brethren still sojourning in Leyden. Mr. Nash came from England to New Haven with Mr. Whit-field and his company, and was one of the signers of the agreement which that company made on shipboard to remain together. But being not only a smith, but a gunsmith, it was for the common welfare as well as his own, that he should have his shop in the largest and most central plantation. His change of purpose was probably after the fundamental agreement was made, as he had not signed his name to it when it was copied into the record-book. He must have been advanced beyond the zenith of life, for his eldest son became a proprietor and a freeman not long after his father. I, John Benham probably came from England in 1630, and had been a freeman in Dorchester, Mass. Removing to New Haven, he wrought as a brickmaker. As late as 1651 he petitioned for compensation for time spent at the first settlement in searching for clay suitable for making brick, and his claim was allowed. He was also, by appointment, town-crier. Although himself a freeman, he was at one time implicated in what the General Court of the Jurisdiction regarded as "a factious, if not seditious," opposition to the "fundamental law" which limited the right of suffrage.

John Chapman had also been a freeman of Massachusetts before he came to New Haven. He removed to Fairfield in 1647, and thence to Stamford, where he made his will, 1665. Thomas Kimberly removed from Dorchester, Mass., 126

to New Haven, where he was admitted a freeman in November, 1639. It is said that his son Eleazar, baptized the same month, was the first child born of English parents in Quinnipiac. Mr. Kimberly was one of two pound-keepers appointed by the town in January, 1643 ; and the pound of which he had charge was situated on the east side of State Street, opposite the house of Thomas Nash. Mr. Kimberly had only a small estate when he came to New Haven, but his five children entitled him under the rule of allotment to a much larger acreage than he could draw for his estate. After the removal of Seeley, the first marshal, Kimberly was appointed to that office.

Matthew Gilbert, who lived at the corner of Chapel and Church Streets, in a house fronting toward the market-place, doubtless came with Eaton and Davenport from England, for there is no record of him in Massachusetts; but whether he had been a citizen of London, or had come from some other part of the kingdom, is not known. His election to be one of the seven founders of the theocracy shows that he was, even in the beginning of the settlement, held in high estimation ; and the appointment of him as a deacon shows that he retained the, confidence of the church in subsequent years. He was honored with political as well as ecclesiastical office, being first an assistant magistrate of the jurisdiction, and afterward deputy-governor. A rough stone still standing on the green, marked " M. G. 80," marks the place of his burial. President Stiles conjectured that the M was a W, inverted for the purpose of concealing from his enemies the last resting-place of William Goffe, the regicide; but acknowledged that he

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had not found the least tradition or surmise that Goffe was buried in New Haven till he himself conjectured it. The initials are those of Matthew Gilbert; and, if the Arabic numerals were designed (as Stiles supposed) to express that the person buried beneath died in 1680, they give correctly the date of Gilbert's death. More probably they were meant to indicate the number of years he had lived.

Owen Rowe, a citizen of London, took stock in the plantation company, but could not leave home when the Hector sailed. He, however, sent his son Nathanael, a boy in his teens, under the care of Davenport and the Eatons. The youth was left behind in Massachusetts in the spring of 1638, that he might pursue his studies under the care of Nathanael Eaton, the brother of Theophilus and Samuel Eaton, who about that time commenced his extraordinary and disgraceful career as master of the school afterward called Harvard College.1 There is extant a pathetic letter from yeung Rowe to Gov. Winthrop, complaining that Eaton had never given him any instruction, and soliciting the governor to advise him how he may return to his father.2 Owen Rowe, delaying to come till the civil war broke out, became a colonel in the Parliamentary army, and, when King Charles was tried for treason, was one of the judges who condemned him to death. It appears from the records, that, like other wealthy friends of New

1 The coincidence in time between the arrival of the Hector, and the appearance of Nathanael Eaton as an educator, suggests that he may have come in the same ship with his brothers. Winthrop in his Journal, and Savage in his Notes thereupon, have jointly given a graphic picture of him and of his wife, the housekeeper of the college.

* This letter may be found in Appendix II.

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England who did not emigrate, he sent over, as an adventure, some cattle. These were regarded, as security for the expense of fencing, and for the rates to be paid "in consideration of his lot and estate here given in." His town-lot was on Church Street, next north of Mr. Gilbert's. As it touched Mr. Davenport's; lot in the rear, it was ordered by the town (doubtless at the pastor's suggestion), " that when Mr. Rowe's lot shall' be fenced in, our pastor shall have a way or passage eight feet broad betwixt it and Mr. Crane's lot, that he may go out of his own garden to the meeting-house." Mr. Rowe not making his appearance, the lot was, after some years, divided and granted on certain conditions to Mr. Davenport, Mr. Gilbert, and Mr. Crane, the adjoining proprietors. The lot on the corner of Church and Elm Streets was at first reserved by the proprietors as a parsonage, if at Mr. Davenport's death or removal it should be needed, but afterward was granted to Nicholas Augur, a practitioner of medicine. This grant had not been made when the schedule of 1641 was written, and the earliest mention of Mr. Augur is in 1644. Some relation of Mr. Augur's troubles as a practitioner of medi-cine, and of the wf'etchedness of his death, will be given in subsequent chapters.

Jasper Crane, the only remaining occupant of the east-centre square, was presumably from London, as he was much connected with the London men in various ways. He first put in his estate at one hundred and eighty pounds, and land was assigned him according in amount with that appraisal; but before the meadows and the out-lands of the third division were allotted, he

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was permitted to increase his appraisal to four hundred and eighty pounds, and receive thereafter corresponding allotments of land. He afterward removed to Bran-ford ; represented that town in the General Court of the Jurisdiction in 1653, and was afterward chosen to, be a magistrate.

Four lots on East Water Street, fronting the harbor, were, for the allotment of out-lands, attached to Mr. Davenport's quarter. Their proprietors were James Russell, George Ward, Lawrence Ward, and Moses Wheeler.

Commencing the survey of the south-east square at the corner of Chapel and State Streets, we find the house of William Preston, a Yorkshireman, who died in 1647, leaving a large family, and a small estate here, which was supplemented by his right in a house, land, and other goods " in Yorkshire, in a town called Gigles-weke, in Craven." He and his wife had the care of the meeting-house, which she was to "sweep and dress" every week, having one shilling a week for her pains. He was at one time under the censure of the church, but in his will describes himself as "a member of the church of New Haven."

Next to the premises of Mr. Preston were those of Richard Mansfield, who came to Quinnipiac with the other planters as a steward for Mr. Marshall who was perhaps of London when he engaged in the enterprise,

1 Mr. Malbon, Mr. Lamberton, and Mr. Evance contracted with the town in 1644, to " dig a channel which shall bring boats, at least, to the end of the street beside William Preston's house, at any time of the tide, except they meet with some invincible difficulty, which may hinder their digging the channel so deep."

13O but afterward of Exeter. There was presumably no house on Mr. Mansfield's lot; for he was at first in the service of Mr. Marshall, and afterward, when Mr. Marshall had abandoned the idea of coming, bought of him his lot at the corner of Elm and Church Streets. This became the Mansfield homestead, and a part of the land remained in possession of the family for several generations. It seems, however, from Mr. Mansfield's will, which was nuncupative, and declared by two of his neighbors, that at the time of his decease he was residing at his farm between East Rock and Quinnipiac River. Being asked if, according to English custom, he would give more to his elder than to his younger son, he replied in the negative, alleging that the former "was a wild boy, and the younger was of a better spirit."

Thomas Jeffrey, who lived next south of Mr. Mansfield's lot, was by trade a tanner, and doubtless had reference to his trade in choosing his home-lot; for a stream of water flowed through his land at that time, though it has long since disappeared. At an early day he relinquished his trade, to become a mariner. In 1647, "Capt. Malbon propounded that the town hath been ill provided 'bf sergeants, in regard that Sergeant Jeffrey is abroad much by reason of his occasions at sea, therefore whether the town will not see cause to appoint another' sergeant in his room, and the rather seeing Sergeant Jeffrey hath earnestly desired it, as Lieut. Seeley and Sergeant Munson did testify in court. The captain also affirmed the same, and that he was unwilling to move for a change till that now he under-standeth Sergeant Jeffrey purposeth to employ himself more fully in sea affairs."

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George Lamberton, who lived next south of Sergeant Jeffrey was one of the nine proprietors, who, in the schedule of 1641, are rated at one thousand pounds. Of these nine, however, five were non-resident, and soon ceased to pay rates. So that Lamberton was one of four planters who were excelled only by Theophilus Eaton in the amount of their estates. He was from his first appearance in the plantation a mariner, and lost his life in the ship which, under his command, left the harbor of New Haven in January, 1646, and was never afterward heard from. He is mentioned by Ezekiel Rogers fh a letter to Gov. Winthrop, in a manner which suggests that he had been one of Rogers's flock. His influence as a man of mind and of substance may have principally occasioned the large secession of Yorkshire-men who refused to return to the Bay when sent for by Rogers.1 William Wilkes, who lived at the corner of State and George Streets, removed to Quinnipiac from Boston, where he had resided since 1633. He went to England in 1644, intending to return ; but, instead of returning, he sent for his wife to join him in England. She, embarking in Lamberton's ship, was lost at sea. News of Mr. Wilkes's decease was probably received soon after; for a will made by his wife was admitted to probate, which disposed of their whole estate. The house and orchard were sold for forty pounds; the house being appraised at thirty pounds, and the land at ten pounds. Benjamin Fen proprietor of the lot on George Street, adjoining the premises of Willfam Wilkes, removed to Milford with the other first planters of that

1 See page 83.

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town. At this time he had but a small estate, and was in no way prominent; but afterward he became one of the leading men in the colony.

Robert Seeley, the next grantee, sold, in 1646, "his house and house-lot" to John Basset, with two acres of upland out of his first division, and afterward resided on the west side of West Creek, as appears from a deed of gift which he made of " his dwelling-house, with his orchard " to his son Nathaniel. He had removed from Watertown, now called Cambridge, Mass., with the first planters of Connecticut, and had been Capt. Mason's lieutenant in the attack on the Pequot fort at Mystic. Removing again, he came to Quinnipiac before its planters had established their fundamental agreement, and was admitted a freeman on the day the court was organized. He was by trade a shoemaker; but being marshal of the court, lieutenant of the train-band, and captain of the artillery company, much of his time was employed in public affairs. In the autumn of 1646, about the time he sold his house in Mr. Lamberton's quarter, he had "liberty of the court to go for England, although a public officer." It appears, however, that he did not immediately use his liberty, for he was here in the following February. In 1649 he was minded to remove from the town, and offered his resignation; but the court refused to receive it as long as he remained, and "the four sergeants were desired to take some pains to see what men would underwrite" for the encouragement of Lieut. Seeley to remain. At a subsequent meeting, the sergeants having accomplished but little, sixteen or seventeen pounds were pledged by those present, and "the sergeants were desired to speak with those that are

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not present, to see what they will do." In 1659 appears the alienation of another house, after which his name disappears for a time from the records, as if he were absent. In 1662 he had "returned from England ;" and " a motion was made in his behalf for some encouragement for his settling among us," which, however, was ineffectual.

Roger Ailing came to New Haven with Capt. Lam-berton, acting as steward during the last half tif the voyage, the former steward having died. Judging from the wages allowed, viz., five pounds ten shillings for the whole voyage, one would conclude that the vessel came from a greater distance than the Bay. He was at this time unmarried, and of small estate. At an early date he became a member of the church and of the court. In 1661 he was chosen treasurer of the jurisdiction, and afterward a deacon of the church.

John Brockett was also, in 1643, unmarried, and of even smaller estate than his neighbor, Roger Ailing. Like him he early became a member of the church and of the court. He was much employed by the court, as well as by individuals, in his profession as a surveyor. Mr. Hickock's lot probably lay next to that of Brockett. Mr. Crane, his agent, surrendered it to the town in 1641, the proprietor having relinquished his intention of coming here to reside. John Budd, the next proprietor, signed the fundamental agreement before it was copied into the book, and remained here till he removed, about 1646, to Southold, L.I., where he acted a more prominent part than at New Haven. Soon after his removal he was appointed a lieutenant, and afterwards represented his

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town in the General Court of the Jurisdiction. During his absence in England another person was allowed and desired to exercise the company; the General Court " understanding that he is a member of the church of Salem, and,, had he letters of recommendation, might be admitted a freeman as others are." But he must take the oath of fidelity to the jurisdiction: otherwise the command must vest in the corporal of the company. Mr. Budd sold his house and lot, in New Haven, for a hogshead of sugar.

William Jeanes, who lived at the corner of Church and Chapel Streets, had been one of the first planters, but was not admitted a freeman till 1648. He sold this corner-lot the same year to John Meggs.1 Some years afterward he was at Northampton, whence he removed to Northfield with its first planters, and, though not an ordained minister, conducted the first public Christian worship in that town, preaching under an oak-tree.

Nicholas Elsey, who received his allotment on Chapel Street, adjoining that of Mr. Jeanes, was a cooper by trade. He was present at the ratification of the fundamental agreement in Mr. Newman's barn, and a few years afterward was admitted a freeman.

Richard Hull, who lived on Chapel Street, between Nicholas Elsey and William Preston, signed the fundamental agreement at the time when it was established, and at the first meeting of the court was admitted a

1 See History of the Cutler Corner, by Henry White, in N. H. Col. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. 1. Mr. White illustrates the relative inferiority in early times of that part of Chapel Street which lies between Church Street and State Street, by a quotation from the records in which it is called " the lane that leadeth to Zuriel Kimberley's house."

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freeman, as a member of some other church than that of New Haven. Commencing the survey of the south-centre square, we find at its north-east corner, where the glebe building now is, the house of Thomas Gregson. President Stiles records the tradition that Gregson's house was one of four which excelled in stateliness all other houses erected in New Haven by the first generation of its inhabitants; the three which he groups with Gregson's belonging respectively to Mr. Theophilus Eaton, Mr. John £)avenport, and Mr. Isaac Allerton.1 Gregson was one of the most honored men in the community, intrusted with office continuously from 1640 till he embarked in 1646, with a commission from the Colony of New Haven to obtain, if possible, a charter from Parliament. Having been a merchant in London, he engaged in commerce after his arrival at Quinnipiac; and the voyage in which he lost his life was primarily undertaken for commercial ends. Next west of Mr. Gregson lived Stephen Goodyear, another of the London merchants originally associated together for the commencement of a plantation in New England. Here he was engaged in foreign commerce, sometimes in company with Eaton, Malbon, and Gregson, and sometimes adventuring largely on his individ-

1 As Isaac Allerton was not here at the time of which we are discoursing, it may be appropriate to say that he was one of the voyagers in the Mayflower, and, that having fallen under censure at Plymouth, on account of some commercial transactions in which he was the agent of the colony, he removed first to Marblehead, then a part of Salem, and afterward to New Haven. A lot was granted him on the east side of Union Street; near Fair Street, where he built a " grand house with four porches."

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Dual responsibility. Having lost his first wife in Lam-berton's ship, he married the widow of Lamberton, thus uniting two families in one home with advantage to the children of each. Second only to Eaton in the colonial government, his absence in England when Eaton died was a sufficient reason why he was not then advanced to the chief magistracy; and his death in London not long afterward brought his useful and honorable career to an end. The lot next west of that occupied by Mr. Goodyear extended to College Street, and had been assigned to Mr. Hawkins, one of the non-resident proprietors. He seems to have been a friend of Mr. Goodyear, into whose possession the land afterward passed when its first proprietor had relinquished his intention of residing in New Haven.

Fronting on College Street was a lot assigned to Samuel Bailey, who did not long remain in New Haven. His allotment was purchased by William Davis.

Fronting on George Street were six lots belonging to Thomas Buckingham, Thomas Welch, Jeremiah Whitnell, Richard Miles, Nathanael Axtell, and Henry Stonhill, respectively. Axtell, "intending to go home, died in a few weeks before embarking, at Boston." Of the remaining five, four, namely, Buckingham, Welch, Miles, and Stonhill, removed to Milford with the first planters of that town, leaving only Whitnell on -that side of the square. Deacon Richard Miles, however, returned to New Haven in 1641.

According to the schedule of 1641, the proprietors of the south-west square were, at that time, William

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Fowler, Peter Prudden, James Prudden, Edmond Tapp, Widow Baldwin, An Elder, Richard Platt, Zachariah Whitman, and Thomas Osborne. The town records show that the lot reserved for an elder had been originally assigned to Timothy Baldwin, who, removing to Milford, sold his allotment to the town. As no land within this square has been traced to Thomas Osborne, it may be inferred that he sold to Mr. Fowler at an early date, and before a record of alienation was required. Mr. Osborne .owned and occupied a house and tanyjrd on the south side of George Street, between Broad and Factory Streets, doubtless preferring this location to his original allotment because of the facilities it afforded for his vocation as a tanner. He afterward became one of the first planters of Easthampton on Long Island; but this property, being given to one of his sons, remained in the name of Osborne far into the nineteenth century. With the exception of Osborne, the original grantees of this square removed to Milford. As they had all emigrated from Herefordshire, or its vicinity, the square was for some years designated as the Herefordshire quarter.

The square next north of that occupied exclusively by Prudden and his friends from Hereford, had been assigned for the most part, if not wholly, to the York-shiremen who came with Ezekiel Rogers.

At the corner of Chapel and York Streets, a lot surrendered by Francis Parrot, one of the Yorkshiremen who returned to Massachusetts and settled at Rowley, was assigned by vote of the town, Nov. 3, 1639, to Thomas James, who, having been pastor of the church

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in Charlestown, Mass., had resigned his charge and come hither to reside. In 1642, in response to a call from Virginia for ministers from New England, Mr. James went with two of his clerical brethren to Virginia. The mission was unsuccessful, not however for want of "loving and liberal entertainment," but because the colonial government would not allow them to remain unless they would conform to the Church of England. Mr. James afterward returned to the mother-country, and was a beneficed clergyman in Needham, County of Suffolk, till ejected in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity.

Widow Greene, who owned the lot on York Street, next north of the corner-lot of Mr. James, probably did not long remain at New Haven, as the name does not continue to appear on the records.

Thomas Yale, step-son of Gov. Eaton, owned the next lot, but probably never lived on it. Marrying a daughter of Capt. Turner, he engaged in husbandry, and appears to have made his home at a farm some miles north of the town-plot.1 Thomas Fugill, a Yorkshireman, and, as we learn from the autobiography of Rev. Thomas Shepard, a member, before his emigration, of the family of Sir Richard Darley at Buttercrambe, was one of the seven men selected by the planters of New Haven for their "foundation work." He was also "notary public," or secretary of the plantation, and when a colonial government was instituted by the union of New Haven, Mil-

1 Thomas Yale has usually been reputeS to be the father of Elihu Yale, the benefactor of Yale College; but Professor Dexter has conclusively proved that Elihu Yale was son of David Yale, a brother of Thomas.

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ford, and Guilford, was appointed secretary of the jurisdiction. He wrote a neat, legible hand, and so far forth performed the work of his office well; but the town, becoming suspicious of the records, appointed a committee " to view all those orders which are of a lasting nature, and where they are defective, to mend them and then let them be read in the court that the court may confirm or alter them as they see cause." The summary thus prepared is on record in the book kept by Fugill. Meanwhile another committee was investigating the result of a false entry by means of which Fugill had possessed himself of fifty-two acres and thirteen rods in the second division of lands, "instead of twenty-four acres, his full proportion." When this committee reported, "some of the court and town propounded whether it were not requisite and necessary to choose another secretary, who might more faithfully enter and keep the town's records. The secretary confessed his unfitness for the place by reason of a low voice, a dull ear, and slow apprehensions. He was answered, the court had long taken notice of sundry miscarriages through weakness or neglect, yet in tender respect to himself and his family, they had continued him in the place (though with trouble to others); a review of orders, before these offences brake out, being upon that consideration thought necessary and ordered. But upon this discovery of unfaithfulness and falsifying of orders and records, they were called to lay aside those private respects for the public safety. By the court, therefore he was presently put out of his office of secretary for this plantation." Unable to sustain himself under the weight of this punishment and of the censure of the

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church which followed it, he sold his estate, left the town, and probably returned to England.

John Punderson, another of the Yorkshire company, and also one of the seven chosen for " foundation work," was Fugill's nearest neighbor on the north. Few men of that generation were so faithful in all public duties as entirely to avoid pecuniary mulct; but there is no record of a fine imposed on John Punderson. A son and a grandson, both bearing the name of John, were deacons in the church which he helped to institute. Another grandson, Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, was one of the fathers of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. On the corner of York and Elm Streets lived John Johnson, also of the Yorkshire company, who after a few years removed to Rowley, selling his house to his brother Robert, from whom was descended Rev. Samuel Johnson, two years younger than Ebenezer Punderson, but earlier than he in the ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Corporal Abraham Bell lived on Elm Street, next east from Mr. Johnson's corner. In 1647 he sold his estate in New Haven to Job Hall, and removed to Charles-town, Mass. John Evance, who had been a London merchant and a parishioner of Mr. Davenport at St. Stephen's, had a large lot on the corner of Elm and College Streets, part of it being held by him for his brother-in-law, Mr. Mayer, who had not yet emigrated, and, as it proved, never came. Mr. Evance, though less active and conspicuous in civil affairs than some others, was inferior to few or none in commercial enterprise, drawing bills of exchange on Mr. Eldred for beaver and hides shipped

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to London, and sending shingles and clapboards to Bar-badoes in vessels to be freighted with sugar in return.

The lot on College Street, next south of that occupied by Mr. Evance, was owned by a widow bearing the Yorkshire name of Constable. The question has been raised, whether the husband of this woman were the Sir William Constable, who, according to Mather, proposed to follow Ezekiel Rogers to New England. This woman was plainly a widow, but not the widow of Sir William. Her husband was styled Mr. ; her estate was small; she emigrated apparently as early as Rogers, and probably in his company; while Sir William did not sail with Rogers, and could not have come afterward without impressing on the page of history some notice of his arrival. Both the name and the location of this family suggest that they belonged to Rogers's company, and they may have been related to the knight who bore their family name. Mrs. Constable afterward became the wife of Deacon Richard Miles. On the corner of College and Chapel Streets lived Joshua Atwater. He was born at Lenham, County of Kent, where he was baptized June 2, 1612. Having been a merchant in Ashford, in the same county, he emigrated in the company of Davenport and Eaton, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, first at New Haven, then at Milford, and afterward at Boston, where he died in 1676. He was treasurer of the jurisdiction till he removed out of its bounds. The lot on Chapel Street, next west of Mr. Atwater's, was assigned to John Cockerill, probably a Yorkshire-man, who built a house thereon, but shortly after removed, leaving his house and lands in charge of Thomas

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Fugill. The estate stands in the name of Fugill in the schedule; but when after Fugill's departure the fences decayed, and the rates remained unpaid, it was ascertained that Cockerill had never alienated and still claimed it. Alien Ball, a brother-in-law of Fugill, and perhaps also related to Cockerill, was requested by the town to "take the house and land and improve them for defraying charges of rates and fencings;" but he declined, saying that " the house was uncomfortable to live in." A curious record in regard to this property was made more than sixty years after Cockerill left it in the hands of Fugill; viz., -

"June 20, 1710. Capt. Nathan Andrews and Mr. John Todd, both of New Haven, testify and say that upon their certain knowledge, they formerly knew one Mr. John Fugill to be at New Haven above forty years since, who was reputed to be the son of Mr. Thomas Fugill formerly of New Haven, and that he did not, as they know of, lay any claim to the land in New Haven that was his father's."

Edward Wigglesworth, whose tombstone, marked E. W. 1653, was for a time supposed to distinguish the grave of Edward Whalley, one of the regicide judges, lived on the lot next west of Mr. Cockerill's. An autobiographical paper by his son, Rev. Michael Wiggles-worth, printed in the appendix to this volume, gives a more distinct view of Quinnipiac and of one of its families than any other single document. Thomas Powell lived to old age of the only remaining lot in the Yorkshire quarter. Commencing the survey of the north-west square at

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its north-west corner, we find the corner occupied by Edward Tench, whose name was at first given to the quarter. He died in February, 16f$. His wife, of whom he speaks in his will as " lying in the house with me, dangerously sick and near to death by a consumption, so that in the judgment of man she draweth near her change," probably survived him for some time, as his will was presented to the court nearly seven years afterward.

The lot on Grove Street, next east from Mr. Tench's corner, still "temained, when the schedule was written, in the name of Mrs. Higginson, though that lady had died a few weeks before her neighbor Mr. Tench. She was the widow of Rev. Francis Higginson, the first minister of Salem, and probably a kinswoman of the Eatons, as the names Theophilus and Samuel had been given to two of her children, and one of the children was taken by the governor into his family after the death of Mrs. Higginson. In the settlement of the estate, no mention is made of any house on the home-lot; but in 1647 Theophilus Higginson sold to "Christopher Todd his house and home-lot in New Haven lying betwixt the lot now William Judson's and Mr. Tench's." The inference is, that when Mrs. Higginson died, the family were still occupying a temporary habitation.

Henry Browning lived on the corner of Grove and College Streets. He does not appear to have been a freeman. In 1647 he "sold to Goodman William Jud-son all his real estate and commonage, together with a bedstead and trundle-bed, a pair of valance and a piece of blue darnix, a malt mill, a well bucket and chain, two

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loads of clay brought home, and the fence about the lot repaired." His name does not occur afterward on the records.

Francis Newman, the owner of the next lot, was admitted a freeman in 1640, chosen ensign of the trainband in 1642, lieutenant of the artillery-company upon its formation in 1645, secretary of the plantation in 1647, and was finally advanced to the highest office in the jurisdiction, being chosen governor after Eaton's death.

John Caffinch, whose lot lay next south of Francis Newman's, probably sailed direct from England to Quinnipiac, arriving in 1639 with the first planters of Guilford, though not in the same ship with Whitfield. He was one of the six principal men chosen to receive from the aboriginal proprietors of Guilford a deed in trust for the whole company of planters. For some reason he concluded to live at New Haven rather than at Guilford. He does not appear to have been a freeman.

David Atwater, a younger brother of Joshua Atwater, had a lot adjoining that of Mr. Caffinch, but never lived on it. He seems to have become a proprietor at a late date, and to have received his whole allotment, with the exception of this town-lot, in the third division. It is conjectured, that, before he became a proprietor at New Haven, he may have had some thought of joining the Kentish colony at Guilford. His residence in New Haven was at his farm between East Rock and Quinnipiac River, where his neighbors were Capt. Turner, Richard Mansfield, and William Potter. His town-lot had been previously, assigned to John

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Pocock, who became one of the first planters of Mil-ford. Mr. Atwater died in 1692, having outlived most of the first planters.

Two lots, extending from Mr. Atwater's to the corner of College and Elm Streets, were reserved for nonresidents named respectively Dearmer and Lucas.

On Elm Street, between Mr. Lucas's corner and the corner of Elm and York Streets, lived Andrew Low, widow Williams, Robert Hill, and William Thorpe.

On York Street, between Mr. Thorpe's corner and Mr. Tench's corner, was a lot belonging to Jeremiah Dixon, one of the seven men chosen for foundation work. He early removed from the plantation; and, as he was unmarried, there was probably no house upon his lot.

The only remaining square of the eight which surrounded the market-place was occupied on Elm Street by the lots of two non-residents, Mr. Marshall and Mrs. Eldred, and by the lot of Francis Brewster. Mr. Marshall has already been mentioned in connection with Richard Mansfield, who was his representative and agent. Mrs. Eldred was apparently a widow in London, and perhaps the mother of a Mr. Eldred with whom some of the colonists had commercial correspondence. As the name occurs on the parish-register of St. Stephen's, it may be that the family had been parishioners of Mr. Davenport in Coleman Street. Francis Brewster was from London, and one of the company which came with Davenport. He does not appear to have been a freeman. Mr. Brewster having been lost in Lamberton's ship, and his widow having

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married Mr. Pell and removed to New Jersey, the house and home-lot were sold to Mr. Goodenhouse, a Dutchman, who had married the widow of Capt. Turner. Mark Pearce, whose lot was on College Street north of Brewster's corner, had lived at Cambridge, Mass., and removed to New Haven as late as 1642. At a general court held Feb. 24, 164!, ''Mr. Pearce desired the plantation to take notice, that if any will send their children to him he will instruct them in writing or arithmetic." This was 'Several years before Mr. Cheever removed, so that Mr. Pearce's school, if his offer was accepted, must have been additional to that of Cheever.

Jarvis Boykin, a carpenter by trade, was the next proprietor on College Street. He came from the town of Charing in Kent, and had resided two or three years in Charlestown, Mass., before he joined the company which settled at Quinnipiac.

Benjamin Ling occupied the corner of College and Grove Streets. He had removed from Charlestown, Mass., and was present at the formation of the fundamental agreement in 1639. He died in 1673, commending his wife to the care of James Davids, who for some years had been an inmate of his house. Mr. Davids married the widow, who, dying not long after the marriage, left the homestead to him. It was known to some of the inhabitants of New Haven that James Davids was an alias for John Dixwell, and that thi^ian was one of the regicide judges. Marrying a second wife, he became the father of a family, and resided here many years, not only unbetrayed, but

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much revered and beloved. Here he died in old age; and his grave on the green is marked, not only by the rude stone bearing his initials which his contemporaries placed there, but by a marble monument erected in later times.

On Grove Street, next east from Mr. Ling's corner, was the lot of Robert Newman. In his barn was held the meeting of planters at which the fundamental agreement was adopted, Mr. Newman himself being the secretary of the meeting. He was elected ruling elder of the church, and continued in that office till his return to England. The latest mention of him as a resident of New Haven is on the eighth day of October, 1649.

On the east side of Elder Newman's lot was the lot of William Andrews, a member of the church and of the court from the first. He was a carpenter by trade, but found time'to keep "an ordinary" or house of entertainment for strangers.

John Cooper lived at the corner of Grove and Church Streets. He was present at the adoption of the fundamental agreement, and became a freeman in October, 1645, his name being the last but one on the list made by Secretary Fugill. " John Cooper took oath to be faithful to, the trust committed to him in viewing fences and pounding cattle, according to the court's order, without partiality or respect of persons." In the execution of this trust, he was to inspect all the fences within the two miles " once every week if no extraordinary providence hinder."

Sergeant Richard Beckley, whose lot lay between that of Mr. Cooper and that of Mr. Marshall, was pres-

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ent when the fundamental agreement was adopted, and, as his military title implies, was a member of the court.

Having now surveyed the eight squares which lay around the market-place, let us proceed to the two suburbs, and first to that which lay between the two creeks. Sergeant Samuel Whitehead lived at the corner of George and Meadow Streets. Previous to his residence in New Haven, he had spent some years in Massachusetts and at Hartford. By the marriage of his grand-daughter his homestead passed into the family of Hub-bard, and so continued for nearly two centuries.

John Clark, who lived on Meadow Street next south of Mr. Whitehead, was interpreter when the Montowese Indians sold their land to the English. He had lived about four years in Massachusetts before he came to Quinnipiac with its first planters. Of Luke Atkinson, the next proprietor on Meadow Street, little is known but that he dared to quarrel with Mr. Davenport, and, being charged with slander, was fined forty pounds. He removed from New Haven in 1656.

Edward Banister died in 1649, and his lot passed into other hands. Another lot which lay between State Street and the "East Greek was granted to his widow by the town, on which she "built a house. John Moss, though by no means a wealthy man, gave his son Joseph a liberal education, and had the pleasure of seeing him settled in the ministry at Derby. In his old age John Moss removed to Wallingford, where he died in 1707, aged one hundred and three years. 149 John Charles, a brother-in-law of John Moss, had lived some years in Massachusetts. He was a seafaring man, and removed first to Branford and afterward to Saybrook. Richard Beach removed to New London. Arthur Halbidge came from England to Boston in 1635. He died in 1648. William Peck crossed the Atlantic with Davenport and Eaton. He is said to have been a merchant in London; but the tradition is not easily reconciled with his estimate of his estate, which he put into the * list at twelve pounds. Though not wealthy, he was much respected in the plantation, as appears from his election as a deacon of the church. Timothy Ford, whose lot was at the corner of Meadow and Water Streets, had lived in Massachusetts.

Peter Brown, at a court holden Feb. 5, i6f$, was " licensed to bake to sell, so long as he gives no offence in it justly." He afterward removed to Stamford.

Daniel Paul, whose lot was at the corner of Water and State Streets, soon disappeared from the plantation ; and his lot came into the possession of William Westerhouse, a Dutch merchant. July 3, 1655, John Thompson "bought, at an outcry, the house and lot, and lands which belong to it, which was Mr. Westerhouse's, for .£40.05, which was thus sold by order of the court." About a month afterward the purchaser sold to John Hodson " the house he bought of the court, which was Mr. Westerhouse's, and the land which belongs to it, and Mr. Hodson is to pay the court for it, .£40.05."

John Livermore, who lived on State Street, next north of Goodman Paul's corner, came to Massachu-

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setts from Ipswich, England, in 1634. He signed the fundamental agreement after it had been copied into the record-book.

Henry Rutherford died in 1668: his widow married William Leete, Governor of the Colony of New Haven and afterwards Governor of the Colony of Connecticut.

Thomas Trowbridge was from Taunton or its vicinity, in the county of Somerset. He was a merchant, trading to Barbadoes.

The lots of widow Potter and John Potter passed at an early date into the possession of Alien Ball, though there is no record of the transfer.

Passing now to the suburb on the west side of West Creek, we find, on the corner made by the streets now named Hill Street and C6ngress Avenue, the lot of William Ives. He died in 1648, leaving a wife and four children. William Basset married the widow; and the family continued to reside in the house till it was sold, in 1652, to the widow of Anthony Thompson.

The next lot fronting on Hill Street was assigned to George Smith, who in 1655 sold his house and home-lot to Timothy Ford. He describes the premises as lying between the house that was Matthew Canfield's and that which was William Ives's. The lot thus described as having belonged to Matthew Canfield must have been, if the order of the schedule is to be followed, the property of widow Sherman before Matthew Canfield acquired it. " An inventory and will of old father Sherman was delivered into the couirt" in May, 1641, and soon afterward the name of (Campfield) Canfield first appears.

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These three are all of the lots in the suburb on the west side of the West Creek that can be located. The other" proprietors in this suburb were Matthew Moul-throp, Anthony Thompsont John Reeder, Robert Cogs- well, Matthias Hitchcock, Francis Hall, Richard Os-borne, William Potter, James Clark, Edward Patteson, and Andrew Hull.

As the schedule assigns nothing to Matthew Moul-throp, it is doubtful whether he ever acquired a complete title to a lot in this quarter.

Anthony Thompson died about ten years after the first settlement of the town. His widow married Nicholas Camp of Milford. As one of his two brothers was childless, and the other' had only daughters, he is probably the ancestor of all, or nearly all, in New Haven who, bear the name of Thompson.1

The name of John Reeder is not found in any record later than the schedule of 1641. The name of Robert Cogswell disappears about the same time. At that early day alienations were not always recorded; and, unless it has escaped a very close scrutiny, there is no record of the sale of their lots by these two proprietors.

The names of Matthias Hitchcock, Francis Hall, and Richard Osborne follow next in the schedule. They all remained long in the town, and probably died here. " Matthias Hitchcock passeth over to John Wakefield his house and home-lot on the other side of the West

1 There was another Thompson at Fairfield, contemporary with Anthony of New Haven. Possibly, from that source or some other, Thompsons may have removed to New Haven, and become undistinguishably mixed with the descendants of Anthony.

152 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. Creek," Feb. 6, 1655. Richard Osborne was a tanner by trade, and the coincidence of name and occupation suggests that he was a brother of Thomas Osborne. William Potter removed from his town-lot, if he ever built a house on it, "to his farm on the west side of Quinnipiac River. After having been for many years a church-member, he was accused of bestiality, and upon his own confession was condemned to death and executed. James Clark removed to the liorth part of the town, and afterward to Stratford. The name of Edward Patteson does not occur after 1646. Andrew Hull died in 1643, and his widow became the wife of Richard Beach. Besides the home-lots assigned to proprietors, thirty-two "small lots" had been freely given to as many householders, before the second division of out-lands was made. The records furnish a list of these householders having no right of commonage, in the order in which they were drawn by lot for the choice of the out-lands allowed them in "the second division. Seven of them dwelt on "the bank-side," that is, on East Water Street and east of the four proprietors whose land extended from Union Street to Chestnut Street; the other twenty-five had their homes between George Street and the West Creek. The seven on the bank-side were William Russell, Francis Brown, Thomas Morris, Nathaniel Merriman, Robert Pigg, Thomas Beamont, and William Gibbons.

153 The whole catalogue reads thus, viz., -

1. Stephen Metcalf.
2. Adam Nicolls.
3. Nathaniel Merriman.
4. John Thompson.
5. Brother Kimberly's brother.
6. John Nash.
7. Mrs. Swinerton. 8. Goodman Davis.
9. Richard Newman.
Thomas Mitchel.
Thomas Morris.
Goodman Peck.
Another lot.
Goodman Hames.
Goodman Dayton.
Goodman Pigg.
17. Francis Brown.
George Larrymore.
Thomas Beamont.
Thomas Leaver.
John Vincent.
John Hall.
William Russell.
Christopher Todd.
Thomas Munson.
Benjamin Wilmot
John Walker.
Benjamin Pauling.
A brickmaker.
Obadiah Barnes.
Elizabeth, the washer.
William Gibbons.

In estimating the population of New Haven at this period, one must take into account not only proprietors and householders, but indentured and hired servants. The records show1 that both these classes were numerous. The families of the proprietors contained four hundred and twenty souls, counting only their wives and children with themselves.

Deducting those who never left England, and those who removed to Milford, and adding the families to which lots had been freely given, we have by equal ratio a population of about four hundred and sixty. But the houses of the Milford people were not all empty. Some of them were hired and occupied by persons who did not care to become proprietors. The number of dependents of one kind and another attached to all these families must have nearly

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equalled, and perhaps it exceeded, the census returned by the proprietors. Gov. Eaton returns only six; but his family is said to have contained thirty persons. In no other family was there so large a proportion of servants; but there was scarcely a householder whose family was limited to himself, his wife, and his children. Artisans and farmers had young men and boys in their employ, and maid-servants were to be found in almost every household.

If on the basis of these facts we estimate the whole number of souls in the plantation tc eight hundred, confirmation of such an estimate is found in the military census, which after the elders, deacons, magistrates, deputies, physicians, military officers of a higher grade than sergeants, the schoolmaster, the miller, and masters of vessels carrying more than fifteen tons were exempted, provided thirty-one watches, each consisting of seven men, out of the male population between sixteen and sixty years of age. If there were two hundred and seventeen men liable to this duty, and thirty more who were exempt, the entire population could not have been much less than eight hundred.1

1 The Dutch authorities at New Amsterdam reported to their superiors in Holland that Rodenbergh, or New Haven, contained, eleven years after it was founded, about 1,340 families. But, though affirmed of New Haven town, it must have been, I think,'their informant's estimate of the population of the colony.

CHAPTER IX.
MILFORD. - GUILFORD. - SOUTHOLD. - STAMFORD.

"BENJAMIN FENN, Thomas Buckingham, Thomas Welch, Richard Miles, Henry Stonhill, William Fowler, Peter Prudden, James Prudden, Edmund Tapp, Timothy Baldwin, Richard Platt, and Zachariah Whitman were mentioned in the last chapter as having removed to Milford. Other persons from New Haven who engaged with them in commencing a new plantation were John Pocock, Thomas Tibbals, John Fowler, Richard Baldwin, Nathanael Baldwin, Joseph Baldwin, and John Baldwin. The four last named were perhaps sons of the widow Baldwin, who was one of the proprietors in the Herefordshire quarter at New Haven. To these was added a company from Wethersfield, who, with perhaps a few from other places, increased the number of planters commencing the settlement at Milford to fifty-four.

Before their removal to Milford, a church had been organized by them at New Haven on the twenty-second day of August, 1639, the day when the New Haven church was constituted, or, as Mather reports it, one day later. The same method of organization was adopted by the people who were to remove to Milford as by their brethren who were to remain at New Haven.

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They chose seven men for the foundation, and these admitted others. The names of the seven were Peter Prudden, William Fowler, Edmund Tapp, Zachariah Whitman, John Astwood, Thomas Buckingham, and Thomas Welch. Six of them had been resident at New Haven; and one, viz., John Astwood, had resided at Wethersfield.

The town records begin with a list of forty-four persons " allowed to be free planters, having for the present, liberty to act in the choice of public officers for carrying on of public affairs in this plantation." The list was prepared in accordance with an order passed at the first general court of the planters held in Mil-ford on the 2Oth of November, 1639, at which it was " voted and agreed that the power of electing officers and persons to divide the land into lots, to take order for the timber, and to manage the common interests of the plantation, should be in the church only, and that the persons so chosen should be only from among themselves."

At the same court other orders were passed, as follows : viz., -

That they would guide themselves in all their doings by the written word of God, till such time as a body of laws should be established;

That five men should be chosen for judges in all civil affairs, to try all causes between man and man, and as a court to punish any offence and misdemeanor ;

That the persons invested with the magistracy should have power to Call a general court whenever they might see cause, or the public good require;

That they should hold particular courts once in six 157 weeks, wherein should be tried such causes as might be brought before them, they to examine witnesses upon oath as need should require ;

That, according to the sum of money which each person paid toward the public charges, in such proportion should he receive or be repaid in lands, and that all planters who might come after should pay their share equally for \ jyfp I some other public use;

That the town seal \ / should be the letters M and F joined thus:

The court then proceeded to choose for judges, William Fowler, Edmund Tapp, Zachariah Whitman, John Astwood, and Richard Miles, to continue in office till the next court of election, to be holden the first week in October.

It appears from this action taken at their first general court, that the planters of Milford, like those of New Haven, allowed the right of suffrage to church-members only, and that forty-four of them out of fifty-four were at first possessed of this qualification. This was a much larger proportion than at New Haven, where a great majority of the planters not possessing this qualification, though " having a purpose, resolution, and desire that they may be admitted into church-fellowship according to Christ as soon as God shall fit them thereunto," voluntarily deprived themselves of the right of suffrage till they should become thus qualified. One might easily believe that Milford, where so great a majority of the planters were church-members, would adhere to the rule once established, longer than New Haven; but in truth Milford within three years, and perhaps in much less time, admitted six of the ten who

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had been excluded, to be free burgesses while they were not church-members. On second thought one will conclude that the smallness of the minority was in itself a reason why the rule was changed. Perhaps, when four of the ten had become members' of the church and of the court, the absurdity of apprehending any evil from the admission of the remaining six to equal political rights was an irresistible appeal to the majority to change the rule. There may have been less objection to the change for the reason that the rule was not, as at New Haven, a fundamental law, but subject to repeal by a majority of votes, like the common orders of the court. Indeed, the heading of the list of the forty-four reads as if there were some doubt at the time whether the exclusion of the ten would be permanent. It is a list of persons " having for the present, liberty to act in the choice of public officers."

At the second general court, held March 9, 1640, "it was agreed between William Fowler and the brethren (the five judges), that he should build a mill, and have her going by the last of September, when the town were to take it off his hands, if they saw proper, for one hundred and eighty pounds; or else the brethren were to appoint what toll he should take." "It was (says Lambert) the first mill erected in New Haven colony." The high estimation in which it was held by the planters is evident from the fact that when it had been injured by a freshet, they voted in a general court held in December, 1645, tnat all the town should help Mr. Fowler repair the mill, and he was to call for them, each man a day, till he should have gone through the town, whenever he needed help. " If he went not

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through the town in one year, the same liberty was granted till he had gone through." Until this time the plantation had been called by its Indian name of Wepowaug; but at a general court held Nov. 24, 1640, "with common consent and general vote of the freemen, the plantation was named Milford." The letters in the town seal indicate, however, that the name of Milford had been chosen *t an earlier date, and that this formal action was taken for the purpose of superseding the Indian name.

A record of home-lots was made in 1646, from which a "map of the town plot can. be drawn, showing the names of all who were proprietors at that time, and the relative position of their dwellings ; for as every planter was required to erect a good house within three years, or forfeit his lot, it may be presumed that nearly all to whom home-lots were recorded in 1646 had complied with this condition. The number of proprietors had by this time increased to sixty-six. The map opposite page 155 was enlarged from Lambert's History of the Colony of New Haven. It exhibits the line of palisades which enclosed the whole settlement, and the arrangement of the home-lots on both sides of Mill River and of West End Brook. A footway across the field, such as is often seen in England, led from the West End to the meeting-house, "the stiles to be maintained by brother Nicholas Camp at the West End and by brother Thomas Baker at the meetinghouse (for the outside stiles); and for the inner fences, each man shall maintain his stile in the most convenient place; and the passage over Little Dreadful Swamp in John Fletcher's lot, shall be by a long log hewed on the upper side."

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In the allotment of out-lands, a course was taken similar to that taken at New Haven. "In the first division abroad" a tract lying south,of the town and east of Mill River was assigned to the planters whose home-lots fronted on that river, and was called East-field. Another tract west of the same river was allotted to the planters whose houses fronted on West End Brook, and was called Westfield. Each of these fields, or quarters as they would have been called in New Haven, being subdivided among the proprietors according to the estates they had respectively reported for taxation, was enclosed with a fence, to the expense of which each proprietor contributed in proportion to the number of his acres. Meadow-land was also allotted to each planter in proportion to his estate. Several divisions of upland subsequently made, were conducted according to the same rule.

We have already observed that a few families from Kent, moved by the change which took place in ecclesiastical administration when Laud succeeded Abbot, had emigrated in the company of Mr. Davenport. These were the earnest of a company from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, which came two years later, and settled in Guilford. That the two companies were connected, and that they were in communication after the arrival of Mr. Davenport at Quinnipiac, appears from the fact that Mr. Whitfield sailed direct for Quinnipiac, and that Mr. Davenport's only child, whom his parents had left behind on account of his tender years, came with his nurse in the same ship, as also from the covenant

l6l

which Mr. Whitfield's company made and signed on shipboard.1 The covenant was as follows : -

" We, whose names are hereunder written, intending by God's gracious permission to plant ourselves in New England, and, if it may be, in the southerly part, about Quinnipiac: We do faithfully promise each to each, for ourselves and families, and those that belong to us; that we will, the Lord assisting us, sit down and join ourselves together in one entire plantation; and to be helpful each to the other in every common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require; and we promise not to desert or leave each other or the plantation, but with the consent of the rest or the greater part of the company who have entered into this engagement.

" As for our gathering together in a church way, and the choice of officers and members to be joined together in that way, we do refer ourselves until such time as. it shall please God to settle us in our plantation.

" In witness whereof we subscribe our hands the first day of June, 1639.

"ROBERT KlTCHEL. WM. DUDLEY.
JOHN BISHOP. JOHN PARMELIN.
FRANCIS BUSHNELL. JOHN MEPHAM.
WILLIAM CHITTENDEN. HENRY WHITFIELD.
WILLIAM LEETE. THOMAS NORTON.
THOMAS JONES. ABRAHAM CRUTTENDEN.
•JOHN JORDAN. FRANCIS CHATFIELD.
WILLIAM STONE. WILLIAM HALL.
. JOHN HOADLEY. THOMAS NASH.JOHN STONE.
HENRY KINGSNORTH.WILLIAM PLANE.
HENRY DOWD.RICHARD GUTRIDGE.
THOMAS COOK." JOHN HUGHES.
The exact time when Mr. Whitfield and his fellow-V03|*gers arrived in the harbor of Quinnipiac cannot be 1 Inquiry for the autograph of this covenant has been unsuccessful.

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ascertained; but there is reason to believe they were near the end of their voyage when they signed the above agreement, three days previous to the meeting of the New Haven planters in Mr. Newman's barn, when permanent foundations of ecclesiastical and civil order were laid. It is here given as found in the " History of Guilford " by Ralph D. Smith. Under date of " Quinnipiac, July 28, 1639," Mr. Davenport writes to his friend Lady Vere : -

" MADAM, - By the good hand of our God upon us, my dear child is safely arrived with sundry desirable friends, as Mr. Fen-wick and his lady, Mr. Whitfield, &c., to our great comfort.

"Their passage was so ordered, as it appeared that prayers were accepted. For they had no sickness in the ship except a little sea-sickness; not one died, but they brought to shore one more than was known to be in the vessel 'at their coming forth, for a woman was safely delivered of a child, and both were alive and well. They attained to the haven where they would be, in seven weeks. Their provisions at sea held good to the last. About the time when we guessed they might approach near us, we set a day apart for public extraordinary humiliation by fasting and prayer, in which we commended them into the hands of our God whom winds and seas obey, and shortly after sent out a pinnace to pilot them to our harbor: for it was the first ship that ever cast anchor in this place. But our pilot, having waited for them a fortnight, grew weary and returned home; and the very next night after, the ship came in, guided by God's own hand to our town. The sight of the harbor did so please the captain of the ship and all the passengers, that he called it the Fair Haven. Since that, another ship hath brought sundry passengers, and a third is expected daily."

It appears from this letter that Mr. Whitfield's company did not all come in one ship. The signers of the agreement are twenty-five in number, of whom one, and perhaps t\p. did not settle at Guilford. Thomas Nash,

163 being a smith competent to repair guns as well as to do general work in the line of his trade, became a planter at New Haven, and is third in the list of those who signed the fundamental agreement after it was copied into the record-book. The reasons why he should reside in the larger plantation were so weighty that his fellow-passengers doubtless released him from his agreement. The name of John Hughes not appearing on the earliest record of planters at Guilford, it may be conjectured'that he died at an early date, or was diverted from that to some other plantation.

As the first ship brought only twenty-three of the first planters of Guilford, we must conclude that the others arrived in the second or in the second and third ships mentioned in Mr. Davenport's letter. If the first ship arrived in June, the second early in July, and the third' soon after the date of the letter, we may conclude that only preliminary steps were taken for selecting a site previous to the arrival of the last division of their company. Soon after all had arrived, a meeting was held in Mr. Newman's barn, which is thus alluded to in the " Guilford Book of the more fixed Orders for the Plantation." "JANUARY jist 16^9 (N. S. 1650).

" Upon a review of the more fixed agreements, laws and orders formerly and from time to time made, The General Court here held the day and year aforesaid thought fit, agreed and established them

t is a reasonable conjecture that the third ship brought the company which settled Southold on Long Island. As the first vessel is known to have brought about half of the Guilford families, the second would probably be sufficient for the transportation of the remainder. The third vessel sufficiently accounts for the presence at New Haven of the Southold Company, a problem which, so far as the writer is aware, no one has attemptc, to solve.

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according to the ensuing draft, as followeth, viz., - first we do acknowledge, ratify, confirm and allow the agreement made in Mr. Newman's barn' at Quillipeack, now called New Haven, that the whole lands called Menunkatuck should be purchased for us and our heirs, but the deed-writings thereabouts to be made and drawn (from the Indians) in the name of these six planters in our steads, viz., Henry Whitfield, Robert Kitchel, William Leete, William Chit-tenden, John Bishop and John Caffinge; notwithstanding all and every planter shall pay his proportionable part or share towards all the charges and expenses for purchasing, selling, securing or carrying on the necessary public affairs of this plantation according to such rule and manner of rating as shall be from time to time agreed on in this plantation."

According to this agreement made in Mr. Newman's barn, a purchase was made from Shaumpishuh, the sachem squaw of Menunkatuck, which is defined in the following deed: - "Articles of agreement made and agreed on the 29th of September, 1639, between Henry Whitfield, Robert Kitchel, William Chit-tenden, Wm. Leete, John Bishop and Jno. Caffinch, English planters of Menunkatuck, and the sachem squaw of Menunkatuck together with the Indian inhabitants of Menunkatuck as followeth:

"First, that the sachem squaw is the sole owner, possessor and inheritor of all the lands lying between Ruttawoo and Ajicomick river.

" Secondly, that the said sachem squaw with the consent of the Indians there inhabiting (who are all, together with herself, to remove from thence) doth sell unto the foresaid English planters all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits of Ruttawoo and Ajicomick river.

" Thirdly, that the said sachem squaw having received twelve

1 This was a meeting of the newly arrived Guilford planters, and should not be confounded with the earlier meeting of New Haven planters on the fourth day of June.

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coats, twelve fathom of wampum, twelve glasses, twelve pairs of shoes, twelve hatchets, twelve pairs of stockings, twelve hoes, four kettles, twelve knives, twelve hats, twelve porringers, twelve spoons, two English coats, professeth herself to be fully paid and satisfied."

( SACHEM SQUAW, her mark. "JOHN HIGGINSON witness \ Henry Whitfield in the ROBT. NEWMAN }

Additional territory was afterward purchased of other Indians ; but the aforesaid deed covers all the land within the present limits of Guilford. ,

At the time when the deed was written, the purchasers must have been already resident on the land purchased, as they are described as " English planters of Menunkatuck." Probably those who arrived in the first ship had visited the place, andhprepared the way by negotiating with the Indians, so that, soon after the others came to land, all went together to their new home. If this be true, the deed was signed at Menunkatuck, though there is no proof of this in the writing itself. The presenpe of John Higginson, one of the witnesses, is worthy of notice. This young gentleman, naw in the twenty-fourth year of his age, may have stopped at the new settlement merely for needful refreshment as he journeyed from Saybrook Fort, where he was chaplain, to visit his mother at Quinnipiac. But, if this was his first introduction to the planters of Menunkatuck, we may conclude from his subsequent history that he soon repeated his visit ; for within two years he married a daughter of Mr. Whitfield, and fixed his residence at Guilford. Trumbul says of the founders of this plantation : -

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" As they were from Kent and Surrey, they took much pains to find a tract of land • relembling that from which they had removed. They therefore finally pitched upon Guilford, which, toward the sea, where they made the principal settlement, was low, moist, rich land, liberal indeed to the husbandman, especially the great plain south of the town. This had been already cleared and enriched by the natives. The vast quantities of shells and manure, which in a course of ages they had brought upon it from the sea, had contributed much to the natural richness of the soil. There were also nearly adjoining to this several necks, or points of land, near the sea, clear, rich, and fertile, prepared for immediate improvement."

No list of planters is,extant bearing an earlier date than 1650. About that time a catalogue of the freemen was recorded, to which were appended the names of planters not yet admitted to the right of suffrage. Two or three names of each of these classes appear to have been added as late as 1652. The freemen of the plantation were: - Henry Whitfield. Jno. Higginson. George Hubbard. Mr. Samuel Desborough. Mr. Robert Kitchel. Mr. Wm. Chittenden. Mr. Wm. Leete. Thomas Jordan. John Hoadley. John Scranton. George Bartlett. Jasper Stillwell. Alexander Chalker. John Stone. Thomas Jones. William Hall. Thomas Betts. John Parmelin, sen. Henry Kingsnorth. Thomas Cook. Richard Bristow. John Parmelin, Jr. John Fowler. Wm. Dudley. Richard Gutridge. Abraham Cruttenden, sen. Edward Benton. John Evarts. The planters who had not been admitted as freemen were: -

l67 John Johnson. John Sheader. Samuel Blachley. Thomas French. Stephen Bishop. Thomas Stevens. William Boreman.' Edward Seward. George Highland. Abraham Cruttenden, Jr. John Bishop, sen. Thomas Chatfield. Francis Bushnell. Henry Dowd. Richard Hughes. George Chatfield. 'William Stone. John Stevens. 1 Benjamin Wright. John Linsley.

The planters of both these classes were at that time forty-eight in number; of whom four, namely, John Higginson, George Hubbard, John Fowler, and Thomas Betts, had not been of the company of original planters. Higginson came from Saybrook, where he had been chaplain for four years ; and the three others removed from Milford. But the plantation had lost as many or more by removals from it as it had gained by removals to it from other places; and at least seven proprietors are known to have died before 1650. We have seen how Thomas Nash, who came in the same ship with Whitfield, was detached from the company. John Caffinge, or Caffinch, one of the six trustees for purchasing and holding land, and the only one of them who did not come in the same ship with Whitfield, became a planter at New Haven within two or three years after the deeds were signed in which he is named as grantee. Thomas Relf and Thomas Dunk had also removed. In the list of the dead were Thomas Norton, Thomas Mills, John Mepham, John Jordan, William Somers, William Plane, and Francis Austin.

The catalogue of planters in 1650 doubtless contains some names of young men, who, coming with their

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parents in 1639, had since become proprietors. If these amounted to seven, the number of planters in 1639 was the same as in 1650. Comparing Guilford with other plantations in New England during these eleven years, we must conclude that if it had neither gained nor lost in population, it had been comparatively prosperous. England, which had sent so many Puritans to America, was now governed by Puritans, and emigration had consequently ceased. Many plantations were losing from year to year more families by the removal of those who were " going home " and by deaths than they gained by marriages. The people .of Guilford, depending entirely on agriculture for subsistence, and having abundance of fertile land, though they suffered in the general depression, were not so much impoverished as the merchants of New Haven.

From the commencement of the plantation till the gathering of a church in 1643, the undivided lands were held in trust by the six planters in whose name the deed was originally taken. Four of the six were early designated as a provisional committee in whom all civil power was vested. At a meeting of the planters held Feb. 2, 1642, it was " agreed that the civil power for administration of justice and preservation of peace shall remain in the hands of Robert Kitchel, William Chittenden, John Bishop, and William Leete, formerly chosen for that work, until some, may be chosen out of the church that shall be gathered here." Mr. Whit-field was doubtless excused from acting in this provisional magistracy on account of his pastoral relation, and Mr. Caffinch had removed to New Haven. When the church had been formed, civil government was

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instituted by the members of it; and the record of its institution is preceded by the following minute concerning the provisional committee of four: viz., - " Into their hands we did put full power and authority to act, order, and despatch all matters respecting the public weal and civil government of the plantation till a church was gathered among us, which the Lord in mercy having now done according to the desire of our hearts ; the said four men at the public meet-i ing having resigned up their trust as most safe and suitable for securing of those main ends for which we came hither," &c.

What the main ends thus alluded to were, may be learned from the following extract: - "The main ends which we propounded to ourselves in our coming hither were that we may settle and uphold the ordinances of God in an explicit Congregational church way with most purity, peace, and liberty, for the benefit both of ourselves and our posterities after us."

Their ideal church, for the realization of which they had been willing to make so great sacrifices, was instituted June 19, 1643, after the example of New Haven and Milford, by choosing seven men who might admit other approved persons. The seven who were chosen were Henry Whitfield, John Higginson, Samuel Des-borough, William Leete, Jacob Sheafe, John Mepham, and John Hoadley.

The settlement of their ecclesiastical and civil polity may have been hastened by events taking place beyond the precincts of Guilford. Commissioners from the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven had agreed, on Articles of Confederation ; and these articles had been signed at Boston on the nineteenth day of May, just one month

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before the church of Guilford was instituted. This confederation of colonies was formed for mutual assistance and defence, and was deemed especially necessary in view of the distracted condition of England, which forbade them to expect help from the mother country in any quarrel that might arise with the colonies of Holland or Sweden, or against any combination of savages to extirpate the white people.

Such a confederation of the four New England colo-.nies made it necessary that the plantations about New Haven, if they would reap the expected advantages of the confederation, should be combined into one colonial government. The plantations at Stamford and at Southold on Long Island were already united with the plantation at New Haven in one jurisdiction. Guilford accordingly qualified itself to be admitted, by organizing its plantation government after the pattern set by New Haven, and proposed by that plantation as a condition of union with it in one colonial government.

The planters of Guilford who were not church-members were not inferior in magnanimous self-abnegation to those of New Haven, who for the public weal and in allegiance to principle had relinquished the right of suffrage. So far as is known, none objected to the fundamental agreement thus expressed: " We do now therefore, all and every of us, agree, order and conclude that only such planters 'as are also members of the church here shall be and be called freemen, and that such freemen only shall have power to elect magistrates, deputies, and other officers of public interest or authority in matters of importance concerning either

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the civil affairs or government here, from amongst themselves and not elsewhere; and to take an account of all such officers for the honest and faithful discharge of their several places respectively."

It will be observed that by this agreement civil power is restricted to members of the church in Guilford ; while at New Haven church-membership in general was the required qualification, and members of " other approved churches " were admitted freemen, as well as members of the church in New Haven. But this divergence from the New Haven rule was probably owing to the fact that all church-members at Guilford entered at once into the new ecclesiastical organization.

Southold on Long Island was settled by a company emigrating from Norfolkshire, England, under the guidance of Rev. John Youngs. As they sailed direct for New Haven, it may be inferred that their leader was in communication with Mr. Davenport, and had heard from him since his arrival at Quinnipiac. There is no documentary testimony in regard to the time of their arrival. The common opinion is, that they came over in 1640; and this opinion seems to be founded on the testimony of Trumbull, that Mr. Youngs gathered his church anew on the 21st of October, 1640. But, if they arrived in New Haven in the summer of 1640, we should hardly expect, in view of what the planters at New Haven, Milford, and Guilford did, that they would be prepared for the formal organization of a church the same year, that they had been some time on the ground when the church was instituted, appears from the record "that one man sold his house only

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four days afterward." If Mr. Youngs conferred with Mr. Davenport in the spring of 1637, and waited to hear that the latter had found " accommodations " suff-ciently ample for Himself and for his friends, he needed not to wait longer than 1639. Moreover, tradition says that Mr. Youngs' company staid some time at New Haven. For these reasons it is not improbable that they landed at New Haven in 1639, and that they came in the vessel mentioned in Mr. Davenport's letter to Lady Vere, "as expected daily." Be this as it may, they not only shaped their institutions according to the pattern set by the planters of New Haven, but placed themselves from the first under the same jurisdiction. Milford and Guilford, though using the mould fashioned by Davenport and Eaton, had established each a jurisdiction entirely independent. But Southold, or Yenni-cot (as it was for a time called), was a part of the jurisdiction of New Haven. Hubbard says, "This came to pass by reason of the purchase of the land by some of New Haven, who disposed of it to the inhabitants upon condition of their union." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that, Mr. Youngs' company having been persuaded to unite their plantation with that at New Haven under one jurisdiction, the magistrates assisted them in their negotiations, and took the deed in their own name as officers of the jurisdiction. That the conveyance was made to the jurisdiction, and not to the plantation of Southold, is evident from the petition of the freemen of Southold at a general court held at New Haven for the jurisdiction, the 30th of May,

1 History of Southold, by Rev. Epher Whitaker, in New Haven Colony Historical Society Coll, Vol. II.

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1649, "that the purchase of their plantation might be made over to them." But, though Yennicot was nominally a part' of the jurisdiction of New Haven, it does not appear that it was represented in any court at New Haven, or that any legislative action was taken in regard to it at New Haven for several years. Stamford appears on the record earlier than Southold, as a plantation combined with that at New Haven. The freemen of Southold were for the time being, left to manage their own affairs, and no sufficiently cogent reason urged them to send deputies to the court at New Haven. " Among the early settlers," says Rev. Epher Whit-aker, "were Rev. John Youngs, William Wells, Esq., Barnabas Horton, Peter Hallock, John Tuthill, Richard Terry, Thomas Mapes, Matthias Corwin, Robert Ak-erlyi John Corey, John Conklyne, John Budd, Thomas Moore, Richard Benjamin, Philemon Dickerson, Barnabas Wines, James Reeve, William Furrier, Jdhn Tucker, Jeremiah Vail, Henry Case, John Swazey, Charles Glover, Robert Smyth, Richard Skidmore, John Elton, Thomas Benedict, John Booth, Richard Brown, Ralph Goldsmith, Simon Grover, Thomas Cooper, Caleb Curtis, Thomas Dimon, James Haines, John Herbert, Peter Paine, and Samuel King." But some of these did not come from England with Mr. Youngs' company, and did not become planters at Southold when it was first settled. Lieut. John Budd removed from New Haven, and probably others from other plantations. Trumbull mentions Mr. Youngs, Mr. William Wells, Mr. Barnabas Horton, Thomas Mapes, John Tuthill, and Matthias Corwin as "some of the principal men."

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When Trumbull speaks of Mr. Youngs as gathering his church anew, he seems to intimate that some of his company had been under his pastoral care in England. Youngs had probably been the pastor of a Separate or Congregational church in Hingham, Norfolkshire, and, like John Lothrop, had brought his church with him. Though Trumbull says nothing of gathering the church upon a foundation-work of seven men chosen for that purpose, there can be no doubt, considering the close union between New Haven and Southold, that the church was gathered in that way, or that the seven thus chosen were the foundation and beginning of the general court, as well as of the church.

Stamford was purchased of the Indians by Capt. Turner, as agent for the people of New Haven, July r, 1640. New Haven doubtless purchased the territory for the sake of securing it for planters who would establish institutions like her own. On the fourth day of November in the same year, the General Court of New Haven sold the territory to Andrew Ward and Robert Coe, the representatives of about twenty-two families wishing to leave Wethersfield, and establish a new plantation after the pattern set by New Haven, and under its jurisdiction. The terms of the sale were: -

" First, that they shall repay unto the said town of New Haven all the charges which they have "disbursed about it, which, conies to £33, as appears by a note or schedule hereunto annexed. Secondly, that they reserve a fifth part of the said plantation to be disposed of at the appointment of this court to such desirable persons as may be expected, or as God shall send hither, provided, that, if within one whole year such persons do not come to fill up those lots so reserved, that then it shall be free for the said

175 people to nominate and present to this court some persons of their own choice who may fill up some of those lots so reserved if this ' court should approve of them. Thirdly, that they join in all points with this plantation in the form of government here settled." Trumbull says that the whole number for whom the purchase was made, obliged themselves to remove with their families the next year before the last of November, and that the settlement commenced in the spring of 164. He mentions as the principal planters, Rev. Richard Denton, Mr. Matthew Mitchel, Mr. Thurston Raynor, Mr. Andrew Ward, Mr. Robert Coe, and Mr. Richard Gildersleeve. He might have added the name' of Francis Bell, who, with Andrew Ward, was present at a general court of election held at New Haven the 27th of October, 1641, where they were admitted members of the court, and deceived the charge of freemen. Their presence as members of the court is the first intimation in the records that that assembly had become a court for the plantations combined in the jurisdiction of New Haven. At the same court "Thurston Raynor (was) chosen constable for Rippowams, to order such business as may fall in that town, according to God, for the ensuing year; but is not to be established in his office till he have received his charge from this court, and signified his acceptance thereof to this court."

On the 6th of April, 1642, Matthew Mitchell and John Whitmore of Rippowams were admitted members of the court, and accepted the charge of freemen. On the same day " the plantation of Rippowams is named Stamford." The record styles Mitchell and Whitmore "deputies for Stamford," as if they had been appointed by the freemen of that plantation to attend as their

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deputies. Doubtless Andrew Ward and Francis Bell had received a similar appointment in the preceding autumn.

At the same court John Tuthill of Southold was appointed " constable to order the affairs of that plantation, the time being, till some further course be taken by this court for the settling a magistracy there according to God."

The court, having thus assumed to legislate for other plantations than New Haven, " ordered that every first Wednesday in April, and every Wednesday in the last whole week in October, shall be a general court held at New Haven for the plantations in combination with this town."

This may be regarded as the first formal institution of colonial government at New Haven. The General Court, so far as appears from the records, had confined its legislation to the affairs of the New Haven plantation till October, 1641. At its next semi-annual meeting, it declares itself to be, in all its regular semiannual meetings, a colonial legislature, having jurisdiction over the combined plantations of New Haven, Southold, and Stamford. In the next chapter we have to relate how Guilford and Milford, which, though organized after the pattern of New Haven, were entirely independent, became united with the three plantations mentioned above as already combined in one jurisdiction, and how the colony which included these five plantations united with other colonies in a confederation which they called "THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND."

CHAPTER X.
ESTABLISHMENT OF A COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

IN narrating the settlement of Stamford, we showed that its freemen were received as members of the General Court at New Haven. The court by so receiving them became a court for the jurisdiction. Six months afterward, when Stamford again made its appearance, the court formally declared that in its regular April and October meetings it was "a General Court held at New Haven for the plantations in combination with this town." Its records, however, were made in the same book and by the same secretary as before, and are intermingled with those of the New Haven plantation courts, both general and particular. The general courts for the jurisdiction are not distinguished from the general courts previously held in April and October by any different title, till the secretary styles it on the 26th of October, 1643, "a General Court of Election held at New Haven for this jurisdiction ;" and on the following day, " a General Court held at New HaVen for the jurisdiction."

Thereafter, as long as its proceedings were recorded in the same book, this colonial assembly is distinguished by this title from an assembly of the freemen resident at New Haven, which was sometimes but not always contra

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distinguished as "a General Court held at New Haven for the plantation." The record-book of the New Haven plantation records only two courts for the jurisdiction later than April, 1644,-one a court of magistrates held June 14, 1646, and the other a court of election held Oct. 27 in the same year. Plainly some other book was ordinarily used; and probably some other secretary had been appointed in place of Fugill, who acted as secretary for the jurisdiction till.April, 1644. Unfortunately the first record-book belonging to the jurisdiction has been lost; and there is consequently, with the exception mentioned, a hiatus in the records of the jurisdiction extending from April, 1644, to May, 1653. The history of the colony during this period of nine years must be gleaned from the records of the towns and of the United Colonies. After May, 1653, the'records are complete, and furnish more copious information. At a general court held at New Haven on the 5th of April, 1643, the transaction of business, both for the jurisdiction and for the town, shows that the court itself, as well as its secretary, had not quite learned to discriminate between the local and the colonial government. Besides calling Goodman Osborne to account for spoiling divers hides in the tanning, and ordering " that sister Preston shall sweep and dress the meeting-house every week, and have one shilling a week for her pains," the court appointed Thurston Raynor " magistrate to execute that office at Stamford until the next general court of election at New Haven, which will be in October next, and "ordered that those four men already employed in the town's occasions there, namely, Capt. John Under-

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hill, Mr. Mitchell, Andrew Ward, and Robert Coe, shall assist as the deputies at New Haven in counsel and advice for the more comely carrying on of public affairs."

Thus Stamford, like New Haven, had its magistrate and its four deputies. The meaning of the specification that the deputies should assist the magistrate in counsel and advice will be seen by referring to the order appointing "the deputies at New Haven "six months before, which reads thus: "Mr. Malbon, Mr. Gregson, Mr. Gilbert, and Mr. Wakeman are chosen deputies for this ensuing year to assist in the courts by way of advice, but not to have any power by way of sentence." There is no evidence that a magistracy had been at this time set up at Southold. The freemen there held general courts in which the affairs of the plantation were ordered ; and these assemblies were convened by persons commissioned to do so, and to act for the freemen in the intervals between the courts as the selectmen of a town now are. Besides these plantation officers, there was a constable at Southold appointed by the jurisdiction to be its representative and functionary till a magistracy should be settled.

Such was the condition of the colonial government when it entered into confederation with the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, in 1643. A confederation of colonies had been proposed, and artcles of union had been drawn, before any government had been established at Quinnipiac. Gov. Haynes and Rev. Mr. Hooker of Connecticut had spent nearly a month in Massachusetts in 1639, endeavoring to

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carry the project into effect. Various obstacles had retarded the desired union. Massachusetts, being much more populous and powerful than the other colonies, was not favorable to union on equal terms. The other colonies were still more averse to terms which implied inferiority. Besides, there were questions at issue between Massachusetts and Connecticut in regard to the Pequot country, Massachusetts claiming a part of it for the assistance she rendered in the Pequot war; and in. regard to the boundary between the two colonies, Connecticut claiming the towns of Springfield and Westfield. The union was finally consummated, notwithstanding the difficulties in the way. Their Dutch neighbors were troublesome to the planters of Connecticut and New Haven, and the Indians in various places throughout New England were hostile. The triumph of the Puritan party in the mother-country had brought to an end the large accessions of strength from that source, which till recently the colonies had annually received. Each of the parties needed, or might at any moment need, help from the others.

At a general court, the 6th of April, 1643, "it was ordered that Mr. Eaton and Mr. Gregson, as commissioners from this jurisdiction of New Haven, shall go with other commissioners for other plantations into the Bay of Massachusetts, to treat about a general combination for all the plantations in New England, and to conclude and determine the same, as in their wisdom they shall see cause, for the exalting of Christ's ''ends, and advancing the public good in all the plantations." These commissioners met similar appointees from

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Connecticut, Plymouth, and Massachusetts at Boston; and, on the 19th of May, articles of union were completed and signed by the representatives of Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts. The commissioners of Plymouth approved the articles, but were not authorized to sign them. But, being afterward empowered to do so, they signed them in the following September. These articles declare in substance : -

I. That the four colonies agree to be and to be called, THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND.

II. That they enter into a league of amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor.

III. That each colony shall have peculiar jurisdiction and government within its own limits; that without consent of all, no two members shall be united in one, and no new members shall be received. '

IV. That the expense of wars shall be borne in proportion to the number of male inhabitants between sixteen and sixty years of age.

V. That its confederates shall aid any colony invaded by an enemy in the proportion, of one hundred men for Massachusetts, and forty-five for each of the other colonies.

VI. That each of the four colonies shall choose two commissioners, " being all in church fellowship with us, who shall bring full power from their several general courts respectively, to hear, examine, weigh, and determine all affairs of war and peace, leagues, aids, charges, and number of men for war, division of spoils, or whatsoever is gotten by conquest, receiving of more confederates or plantations into combination with any of these confederates, and all things of like nature which are the proper concomitants or consequents of such a confederation for amity, offence, and defence, not intermeddling with the government of any of the jurisdictions, which by the third article is preserved entirely to themselves;" and that, if these eight do not agree, then any six agreeing shall have power to determine the business in question.

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VII. That the eight commissioners at each meeting may choose a president by the concurrence of all or of six.

VIII. That the commissioners shall frame and establish such orders as may preserve friendship between the members of the union, and prevent occasions of war with others. Under this head are specified, the free and speedy passage of justice in each jurisdiction to all the confederates equally as to their own; not receiving those that remove from one plantation to another without due certificates; how all the jurisdictions may carry it toward the Indians; and the surrender of fugitive servants and fugitive criminals.

IX. That no colony may engage in war without the consent of all, unless upon some exigency.

X. That in extraordinary occasions, four commissioners, if more are not present, may direct a war which cannot be delayed, sending for due proportion of men out of each jurisdiction; but that the expense of a war thus begun may not be levied till at least six commissioners have approved of their action.

XI. That if any colony shall break any article of the confederation, or injure one of the other colonies, such breach or injury shall be considered and ordered by the commissioners of the "three other confederates.

XII. That this confederation and the several articles and agree-ments thereof were freely allowed and confirmed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven, and, ,if Plymouth consents, the whole treaty, as it stands, is and shall continue firm and stable without alteration; but, if Plymouth consents not, then the other three confederates confirm the confederation and all its articles, except that new consideration may be taken of the sixth article which determines the number of commissioners for meeting and determining the affairs of this confederation.

When the colony of New Haven entered into this confederation, it consisted only of the plantations of New Haven, Southold, and Stamford; but Guilford, establishing a plantation government in the following month, was ready to become incorporated into the

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colony as soon thereafter as the consent of the confederated colonies could be obtained. Such consent was obtained in the following September, at the first meeting of the commissioners held under the articles. At the same meeting, " upon a motion made by the commissioners for New Haven jurisdiction, it was granted and ordered that the town of Milford may be received into combination and as a member of the jurisdiction of New Haven, if New Haven and Milford agree upon the terms and conditions among themselves."

The obstacle which had delayed the entrance of Mil-ford into the combination will be sufficiently displayed by the record of the action taken at New Haven for its admission. We transcribe, therefore, without abridgment, the proceedings at a general court held at New Haven, the 23d of October, 1643 : -

" Whereas this plantation at first with general and full consent laid their foundations that none but members of approved churches should be accounted free burgesses, nor should any else have any vote in any election, or power or trust in ordering of civil affairs, in which way we have constantly proceeded hitherto in our whole court with much comfortable fruit through God's blessing; and whereas Stamford, Guilford, and Yennicock have, upon the same foundations and engagements, entered into combination with us : this court was now informed that of late there have been some meetings and treaties between some of Milford and Mr. Eaton, about a combination, by which it appeareth that Milford hath formerly taken in as free burgesses, six planters who are not in church-fellowship, which hath bred some difficulty in the passages of this treaty, but at present it stands thus : the deputies for Mil-ford have offered, in the name both of the church and the town, First, that the present six free burgesses who are not church-members shall not at any time hereafter be chosen, either deputies or into any public trust for the combination; Secondly, that they shall

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neither personally, nor by proxy, vote at any time in the election of magistrates; and, Thirdly, that none shall be admitted freemen or free burgesses hereafter at Milford, but church-members according to the practice at New Haven. Thus far they granted, but in two particulars they and their said six freemen desire liberty: First, that the said six freemen, being already admitted by them, may continue to act in all proper particular town business wherein the combination is not interested; and, Secondly, that they may vote in the election of deputies to be sent to the general courts for the combination or jurisdiction, which deputies so to be chosen and sent shall always be church-members."

" The premises being seriously considered by the whole court, the brethren did express themselves as one man, clearly and fully, that in the foundations laid for civil government they have attended their light, and should have failed in their duty, had they done otherwise, and professed ^themselves careful and resolved not to shake the said groundworks by any change for any respect, and ordered that this their understanding of this their way and resolution to maintain it should be entered with their vote in this business, as a lasting record. But not foreseeing any danger in yielding to Milford with the forementioned cautions, it was by general consent and vote, ordered that the consociation proceed in all things according to the premises."

The action taken above was the action of the town (as a plantation about that time began to be called) of New Haven; but it seems to have determined the question respecting the admission of Milford. Three days afterward a general court of election for the jurisdiction was held at New Haven, at which two magistrates were chosen for Milford; and on the next day after the election a general court for the jurisdiction was held, at which the two magistrates for Milford were present, as were also two deputies appointed by that town. At this general court a constitution for the colonial government was adopted, the provisions of which were as follows: -

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1. "It was agreed and concluded as a fundamental order, not to be disputed or questioned hereafter, that none shall be admitted to be free burgesses in any of the plantations within this jurisdiction for the future, but such planters as are members of some or other of the approved churches in New England; nor shall any but such free burgesses have any vote in any election (the six present freemen at Milford enjoying the liberty with the cautions agreed); nor shall any power or trust in the ordering of any civil affairs be at any time put into the hands of any other than such church-members, though, as free planters, all have rights to their inheritance and to commerce, according to such grants, orders, and laws as shall be made concerning the same."

2. " All such free burgesses shall have power in each town or plantation within this jurisdiction to choose fit and able men from amongst themselves, being church-members as before, to be the ordinary judges to hear and determine all inferior causes, whether civil or criminal, provided that no civil cause to be tried in any of Plantation Courts in value exceed twenty pounds sterling, and that the punishment in such criminals, according to the mind of God revealed in his word, touching such offences, do not excee'd stocking and whipping, or if the fine be pecuniary, that it exceed • not five pounds. In which Court the magistrate or magistrates, if any be chosen by the free burgesses of the jurisdiction for that plantation, shall sit and assist with due respect to their place, and sentence shall pass according to the vote of the major part of each such court; only, if the parties or any of them be not satisfied with the justice of such sentences or executions, appeals or complaints may be made from and against these courts to the court of magistrates for the whole jurisdiction."

3. "All such free burgesses through the whoje jurisdiction, shall have vote in the election of all magistrates, whether governor, deputy governor, or other magistrates, with a treasurer, a secretary, and a marshal, &c., for the jurisdiction. And for the ease of those free burgesses, especially in the more remote plantations, they may by proxy vote in these elections, though absent, their votes being sealed up in the presence of the free burgesses themselves, that their several liberties may be preserved, and their votes directed according to their own particular light; and these

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free burgesses may, at every election, choose so many magistrates'1 for each plantation, as the weight of affairs may require, and as they find fit men for that trust. But it is provided and agreed, that no plantation shall at any election be left destitute of a magistrate if they desire one to be chosen out of those in church fellowship with them." 4. "All the magistrates for the whole jurisdiction shall meet twice a year at New Haven, namely, the Monday immediately before the sitting of the two fixed general courts hereafter mentioned, to keep a court called the Court of Magistrates, for the trial of weighty and capital cases, whether civil or criminal, above those limited to the ordinary judges in the particular plantations, and to receive and try all appeals brought unto them from the aforesaid Plantation Courts, and to call all the inhabitants, whether free burgesses, free planters, or others, to account for the breach of any laws established, and for other misdemeanors, and to censure them according to the quality of the offence, in which meetings of magistrates, less than four shall not be accounted a court, nor shall they carry on any business as a court; but it is expected and required that all the magistrates in this jurisdiction do constantly attend the public service at the times before mentioned, and if any of them be absent at one of the clock in the afternoon on Monday aforesaid, when the court shall sit, or if any of them depart the town without leave, while the court sits, he or they shall pay for any such default, twenty shillings fine, unless some providence of God occasion the same, which the Court of Magistrates shall judge of from time to time, and all sentences in this court shall pass by the vote of the major part of magistrates therein; but from this Court of Magistrates appeals and complaints may be made and brought to the General Court as the last and highest for this jurisdiction; but in all appeals or complaints from or to what courts soever, due costs and damages shall be paid by him or them that make appeal or complaint without just cause." '

5. " Besides the Plantation Courts, and Courts of Magistrates, there shall be a General Court for the jurisdiction, which shall consist of the governor, deputy-governor, and all the magistrates within the jurisdiction, and two deputies for every plantation in the jurisdiction, which deputies shall from time to time be chosen against

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the approach of any such general court by the aforesaid free burgesses, and sent with due certificate to assist in the same, all which, ' both governor and deputy-governor, magistrates, and deputies, shall have their vote in the said court. This general court shall always sit at New Haven (unless upon weighty occasions the general court see cause for a time to sit elsewhere), and shall assemble twice every year; namely, the first Wednesday in April and the last Wednesday in October, in the latter of which courts the governor, the deputy-governor, and all the magistrates for the whole jurisdiction, with a treasurer, a secretary, and a marshal, shall yearly be chosen by all the free burgesses before mentioned, besides which two fixed courts, the governor, or in his absence the deputy-governor, shall have power to summon a general court at any other time, as the urgent and extraordinary occasions of the jurisdiction may require; and at all general courts, whether ordinary or extraordinary, the governor and deputy-governor, and all the rest of the magistrates for the jurisdiction, with the deputies for the several plantations, shall sit together till the affairs of the jurisdiction be despatched or may safely be respited; and if any of the said magis-trates or deputies shall either be absent at the first sitting of the said general court (unless some providence of God hinder, which the said court shall judge of), or depart, or absent themselves disorderly before the court be finished, he or they shall each of them pay twenty shillings fine, with due consideration of further aggravations, if there shall be cause; which general court shall, with all care and diligence, provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion, and shall suppress the contrary, according to their best light from the word of God and all wholesome and sound advice which shall be given by the elders and churches in the jurisdiction, so far as may concern their civil power to deal therein."

" Secondly, they shall have power to make and repeal laws, and, while they are in force, to require execution of them in all the several plantations."" Thirdly, to impose an oath upon all the magistrates for the faithful discharge of the trust committed to them, according to their best abilities, and to call them to account for the breach of any laws established, or for other misdemeanors, and to censure them as the quality of the offence shall require."

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" Fourthly, to impose an oath of fidelity and-due subjection to the laws upon all the free burgesses, free planters, and other inhabitants within the whole jurisdiction."

" Fifthly, to settle and levy rates and contributions upon all the several plantations, for the public service of the plantation."

" Sixthly, to hear and determine all causes, whether civil or criminal, which by appeal or complaint shall be orderly brought unto them from any of the other courts, or from any of the other plantations. In all which, with whatsoever else shall fall within their cognizance or judicature, they shall proceed according to the Scriptures, which is the rule of all righteous laws and sentences; and nothing shall pass' as an act of the general court, but by the consent of the major part of magistrates and the greater part of deputies."

The adoption of this constitution seems to have put an end to that confusion ef ideas which had sometimes allowed the administration of both plantation and colonial affairs in the same court. The written constitution may have helped the New Haven men to discriminate; and the presence in the court of members from Guilford and Milford, hitherto independent plantations, necessarily tended strongly in the same direction. The colonial constitution remained substantially the same from this time till the colony was absorbed into Connecticut, more than twenty years afterward. The union of these plantations in a colonial government, and the confederation of the colony with the other colonies of New England, were auxiliary to security and peace.

CHAPTER 11
INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS

FROM the establishment of the New Haven colonial government, to its extinction by the absorption of the colony into Connecticut, there was a period of twenty-two years. Before proceeding to narrate the political history of the colony during this period, we propose to give some account of the various industries in which its people were employed; of its institutions for the maintenance of intelligence, morality, and religion ; of its military organization and achievements ; of the aboriginal inhabitants with whom its people had intercourse; and 'of the domestic and social life which resulted from these concurrent influences.

The leading men at Quinnipiac, having been engaged in commerce before their emigration, endeavored to make their new plantation a commercial town. Trade was soon established with Boston, New Amsterdam, - as New York was then called, - Delaware Bay, Virginia, Barbadoes, and England.

Supplies from the mother-country came chiefly by way of Boston ; for the three ships which in 1639 sailed direct from England to Quinnipiac were exceptions to the custom that emigrants into New England landed in

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Massachusetts. If the tide of emigration had not ebbed soon after the settlement was made at Quinnipiac, ships from England might have cast anchor in its "fair haven" with such frequency as to render the plantations in the neighborhood independent of Boston as a base of supplies. But, as it happened, small vessels owned in New Haven, and navigated by her seamen, sailed frequently to and fro between the two ports. Doubtless they sometimes returned home freighted with merchandise purchased of Massachusetts men; but there is evidence that New Haven merchants exported and imported by way of Boston, sending their beaver and other furs to be transferred to the ships which had brought them English goods.

The diary of Winthrop records several such voyages that were disastrous, and others that were dangerous, though without fatal results. Nicholas Augur, one of the earliest physicians at New Haven, occupied himself to some extent, as did also his colleagues in the practice of medicine, in commercial adventures. In 1669, " being about to sail for Boston," he made his will, as if he regarded the voyage £> exposing him to unusual peril of his life. In 1676 he made another voyage to the same port; and on his return, setting sail from Boston on the tenth of September, he was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island off Cape Sable, where he and all his fellow-voyagers died except Ephraim Howe, the captain of the ketch, who, having endured great hardship during the winter, was taken off by a vessel in the following summer and carried to Salem, whence he returned to his family at New Haven after an absence of nearly eleven months. The pinnaces, shallops, and ketches employed

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in this coasting-trade, carried letters and packages from friend to friend; seamen and passengers rendering such service as is now performed by express-companies and by the postmen of the government.1

The trade with Manhattan, as Fort Amsterdam is at first named in the records, did noUapparently include any great amount of European supplies: otherwise it was in general of similar character to that maintained with Massachusetts Bay. The Dutch however, being exempt from the prejudice against tobacco manifested by the good people of Boston, the merchants of New Haven, when they anchored at Fort Amsterdam on their return from a southern voyage, carried on shore many hogsheads of this Virginia product.2 To the same market they conveyed their imports from the West Indies, such as cotton, sugar, molasses, and " strong water;" completing a cargo with such products of their own neighborhood as wheat, biscuit, beef,

1 The germ of a post-office appears in an order of the General Court of Massachusetts passed Nov. 5, 1639: "For preventing the miscarriage of letters, it is ordered, that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks's house in Poston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither,'to be brought unto; and he is to take care that they be delivered or sent according to their directions ; and he is allowed for every such letter one penny, and must answer all miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind; provided that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither, except he please."

2 Sumptuary laws were early enacted in Massachusetts, prohibiting the use of and the traffic in tobacco. These laws were repealed, in 1637, while the New Haven company were sojourning in Massachusetts; but, though the prohibitory laws were repealed, some of the prejudice which led to their enactment must have remained. The only law regulating the use of tobacco, at New Haven, was one passed by the general court fol the jurisdiction in reference to danger from,fire.

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pork, hides, and furs. It is not so evident what they received in return; but probably the trade between the two towns was chiefly an exchange of merchandise for the supply of whatever articles might be temporarily scarce and dear in either market. The Dutch at one time attempted to discriminate between their own shipping and that of their English neighbors, requiring the latter to anchor under " an erected hand," and to pay an ad valorem duty of ten per cent on all imports and exports; but were shamed into reciprocity by the sharp pen of Gov. Eaton, backed by the commissioners of the United Colonies.

Stephen Goodyear, who in the prosecution of this commerce between the towns often visited Fort Amsterdam, purchased there of the Dutch governor a ship called the Zwoll, to be delivered in the harbor of New Haven. Under pretext of conveying the ship in safety, the Dutch put soldiers on board, who on a Sunday boarded and seized the St. Beninio, a Dutch vessel lying in the harbor of New Haven, and carried her away to Fort Amsterdam, where the vessel was confiscated as a smuggler/che owner having evaded payment of certain duties or "recognitions" claimed by his government. William Westerhouse, who owned the vessel, and Samuel Goodenhouse, another Dutch merchant in some way implicated in the business, were then sojourning at New Haven, and, finding it more agreeable to remain than to follow the vessel which had been seized, placed themselves under the protection of the court, and became permanent residents. The settlement at New Haven of these strangers served to abate somewhat the commercial discour-

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agement consequent on a succession of losses. The acquisition of Westerhouse was additionally pleasing, because he was not only a merchant, but a practitioner of medicine. Not long after he became a citizen, he intrusted a cask of liquor to John Lawrencson to be retailed. Some disorder having attracted attention, a fine was imposed upon Lawrencson for " selling strong waters by small quantities," contrary to an order of the court. Westerhouse, hearing of it, " acquainted the ^cpurt through Mr. Evance, his interpreter, that he knew it not to be an offence to the court that he employed any to sell his strong water, but seeing he had done it he justified the court in the fine they had laid, and he came to tender the payment. The court told him they looked not upon it as his fault, for they intended, not to fine him ; but, seeing he would pay it, the court considering how useful he had been in the town by giving physic to many persons, and to some of them freely, the court agreed not to take the fine, but returned it to him again."

Within three years after the foundations of government had been laid at New Haven, " there was a purchase made by some particular persons of sundry plantations in Delaware Bay, at their own charge, for the advancement of public good, as in a way of trade, so also for the settling of churches and plantations in those parts in combination with this. And thereupon it was propounded to the general court, whether plantations should be settled in Delaware Bay in combination with this town, - yea or nay; and, upon consideration and debate, it was assented unto by the court, and expressed

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by holding up of hands." This attempt to establish an English settlement in Delaware Bay encountered opposition from the Dutch and from the Swedes, both of whom claimed exclusive jurisdiction in those waters, and, though contending one with the other, united in resisting the English. In 1642 the governor of New Amsterdam " despatched an armed force, and with great hostility burned the English trading-houses, violently seized and for a time detained their goods, and would not give them time to take an inventory of them. The Dutch also took the company's boat, and a number of the English planters whom they kept as prisoners. The damages done to the English at Delaware were estimated at a thousand pounds sterling." *

The same year the Swedish governor seized and imprisoned George Lamberton, "master of the pinnace called the Cock," and some.of his seamen, on a false charge of inciting the Indians to rise against the Swedes. Finding himself unable to support the charge, he improved the opportunity to impose a fine for trading at Delaware, though within the limits of the New Haven purchase. Not long after, Mr. Lamberton, happening to be at New Amsterdam, was compelled by the Dutch governor to give an account of all the beaver he had purchased at the New Haven trading-post in Delaware Bay, and to pay an impost upon the whole.

The next year, New Haven becoming confederate with the other New England colonies, the commissioners of the United Colonies sent letters of remonstrance to the Dutch and the Swedes, and gave Lamberton a commission to treat with the Swedish 1 Trumbull.

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governor in their name about satisfaction for the injuries done him, and about the settlement of an English plantation in Delaware Bay.

The settlement of a plantation was delayed, however, from one year to another, till, in 1651, a company of about fifty men, chiefly from New Haven and Totoket, afterwards called Branford, started on a voyage for Delaware Bay with the intention of beginning the plantation so long kept in abeyance. Bearing a commission from Gov. xEaton, and letters from him and from the governor of Massachusetts to the Dutch governor, explaining their intention, and assuring him that they would settle upon their own lands only and give no disturbance to their neighbors, they came to anchor at New Amsterdam, and sent their letters on shore. " But no sooner had Gov. Stuyvesant received the letters than he attested the bearers, and committed them close prisoners under guard. Then sending for the master of the vessel to come on shore, that he might speak with him, he arrested and committed him. Others, as they came on shore to visit and assist their neighbors, were confined with them. The Dutch governor desired to see their commission, promising it should be returned when he had taken a copy. But, when it was demanded of him, he would not return it to them. Nor would he release the men from confinement until he had forced them to give it under their hands that they would not prosecute their voyage, but, without loss of time, return to New Haven. He threatened, that, if he should afterwards find any of them at Delaware, he would not only seize their goods, but send them prisoners into Holland."'

1 Trumbull.

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Three years later, as appears from the following extract from the records, another attempt was made :- » "At a general court for the town of New Haven, Nov. 2, 1654, the governor read a letter he wrote on the 6th of July, by order of the general court, to the Swedish governor, with his answer in Latin, dated Aug. I, and the answer of the commissioners to that, dated Sept. 23. At the same time be informed them, that, while attending the meeting of the commissioners at Hartford, several had spoken with him in reference to settling at Delaware Bay, if it might be planted. The town was desired to consider which way it may be carried on. After,much debate about it, and scarce any manifesting their willingness to go at present, a committee was chosen; viz., Robert Seely, William Davis, Thomas Munson, and Thomas Jeffrey, to whom any that are willing to go may repair to be takerunotice of, and that, if there be cause, they treat with those of New Haven who have purchased those lands, to know what consideration they expect for them."

" On the 27th of November the committee reported that they had spoken with sundry persons in the town, but that not answering expectation, they got a. meeting of the brethren and neighbors, and for the most part they were willing to help forward the work, some in person, others in estate, so the work might be carried on and foundations laid according to God; and at that meeting they desired that the governor and one of the magistrates, with one or both the elders, might by their persons help forward 'that work, whereupon they had a church-meeting^ and propounded, their desire. The elders declared they were willing to further the work, and glad it was in hand; but Mr. Davenport said in reference to his health, he sees not his way clear to' engage in it in person; nor Mr. Hooke, because his wife is gone for England, and he knows not how God will dispose of her. The governor gave no positive answer, but said it was worthy of consideration." " They further informed that some from other plantations see a need of the work, and are willing to engage in it, and the rather if it be begun by New Haven, and foundations laid as here, and government so carried on, thinking it will be for the good of them and their posterity."

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" They also declared that they had treated with the proprietors about the purchase of the land, and understand that they are out above six hundred pounds, but are willing to take three hundred pounds to be paid in four years."

Mr. Samuel Eatonr and Mr. Francis Newman, being invited to go with the company as magistrates, took the matter into consideration, and on the 4th of December signified their conditional assent. At a general court for the jurisdiction, on the thirtieth day of the following January, a petition was presented on behalf of a company of persons intending to remove to Delaware Bay, wherein they propounded that the Court " would afford some encouragement to help forward so public a work." The Court returned answer: -

" 1. That they are willing so far to deny themselves for the furtherance of that work in order to the ends propounded, as to grant liberty to one or both of those magistrates mentioned to go along with them, who, with such other fit persons as this court shall see meet to join with them, may be empowered for managing of all matters of civil government there, according to such commission as shall be given them by this court."

" 2. That they will either take the propriety of all the purchased lands into their own hands, or leave it to such as shall undertake the planting of it, provided that it be and remain a part of member ' of this jurisdiction. And for their encouragement they purpose

1 The person here intended was a son of Theophilus Eaton by his first wife. He graduated at Harvard College in 1649. In April, 1654, the people of New Haven, " hearing that Mr. Samuel Eaton, son of our governor, is now sent for into the Bay, which, if attended to, they feared they may be deprived, not only for the present, but for the future, of the helpfulness which they have hoped for from him, and considering the small number of first able helps here for the work of magistracy for the present, who also by age are wearing away," induced him to remain with them by offering to elect him magistrate. He was accordingly elected, and had now been in office about six months.

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when God shall so enlarge the English plantations in Delaware as that they shall grow the greater part of the jurisdiction, that then due consideration shall be taken for the ease and conveniency of both parts, as that the governor may be one year in one part and the next year in another, and the deputy governor to be in that part where the governor is not, and that general courts for making laws may be ordinarily but once a year, and where the governor resides; and if God much increase plantations in Delaware, and diminish them in these parts, then possibly they may see cause that the governor may be constantly there and the deputy governor here, but that the lesser part of the jurisdiction be protected and eased by the greater part, both in rates and otherwise, which they conceive will be both acceptable to God and (as appears by the conclusions of the commissioners anno 1651) most satisfying to the rest of the United Colonies."

" 3. That for the matters of charge propounded for encouragement to be given or lent, to help on their first beginnings, they will propound the things to the several particular plantations, and promote the business for procuring something that way, and shall return their answer with all convenient speed."

A special messenger was sent to Massachusetts in hope of securing recruits from that colony for at a general court for the town of New Haver* held on the 16th of the following March:-

" The town was informed that the occasion of (this meeting is to let them understand how things are at present concerning Delaware, now John Cooper is returned. He finds little encouragement in the Bay, few being willing to engage in it at present, and therefore they, may consider whether to carry it on themselves or to let it fall. Mr. Goodyear said, notwithstanding tie discouragements from the Bay, if a considerable company appear that will go, he will adventure his person and estate to go with them in that design; but a report of three ships being come to the Swedes, seems to make the business more difficult. After much debate about it, it was voted by the town in this case, that they will be at twenty or thirty pounds charge; that Mr. Goodyear, Sergeant Jeffrey, and such other as they

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may think fit to take with them, may go to Delaware, and carry the commissioners' letter, and treat with the Swedes about a peaceable settlement of the English upon their own right; and then after harvest, if things be cleared the company may resort thither for the planting of it."

On the gth of April (1655) : -

" The town was informed that there were several who have purposes to go, but they conceive they want number of men and estate to carry it on; now if any be willing to further it in person or estate, they may do well to declare it. It having been first made known to them*,«that, though they may go free and not engaged to be a part of this jurisdiction, yet they and all such as come after must engage upon the same foundations of government as were at first laid at New Haven, which were now read unto them, and though some objections were made, yet notwithstanding the business proceeded, and divers declared themselves willing to further it."

" And for their further encouragement the town granted, if any _ go and leave none in their family fit to watch, their wives shall not be put upon the trouble and charge to hire a watchman, the persons only which are present being to carry on that service. They also further agreed to lend the company the two small guns which are the town's, or else one of them and one of the bigger, if they can procure leave of the jurisdiction for it, with at least half a hundred of shot for that bigger gun if they have it, and a meet proportion of musket bullets, according to what the town hath, and also a barrel of that powder which the town bought of Mr. Evance. And concerning their houses and lands which they leave, what of them lieth unimproved shall be freed from all rates one year and" a half from the time they leave them, paying as now they do for what they improve. Then they shall have one year's time more, that they shall pay but one penny an acre for fenced land and meadow as they do at present."

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in that particular region, springing out of and nurtured by the voyages of New Haven merchants, but illustrates the extent to which the commercial spirit ruled in New Haven. It shows us a people, who, having become satisfied that they could never in their present home see their wishes fulfilled, were looking for new shores, where, "foundations being laid as here, and government so carried on," the younger plantation might become "the greater part of the jurisdiction."

It is not impertinent here to observe that during this agitation of the people of New Haven about a removal to Delaware, two attempts were made by Cromwell to divert their attention to other places. Hutchinson says, " Cromwell had been very desirous of drawing off the New Englanders to people Ireland after his successes there; and the inhabitants of New Haven had serious thoughts of removing, but did not carry their design into execution." -, In another place he says, of the New Haven people, " They had offers from Ireland after the wars were over, and were in treaty for the purchase of lands there for a small distinct province by themselves." Mather says, "They entered into some treaties about the city of Galway, which they were to have had as a small province to themselves." If any formal 'action was taken at New Haven on the proposal of Cromwell, it was probably taken by the jurisdiction, whose records from 1644 to 1653 have been lost.1 Five years afterward the Lord Protector, having taken the

1 In Ellis's Collection of Original Letters Illustrative of English His-tory is a letter of certain ministers and others in New England replying to and entertaining Cromwell's proposal. None of the signers are New Haven men. Its date is Dec. 31, 1650.

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island of Jamaica from the Spaniards, offered a portion of it to the people of New Haven. A letter of instructions for. Daniel Gookin, bound for New England, is still extant in the State Paper Office at London, dated Sept. 26,1655. According to the epitome prepared for the calendar published by authority, he is instructed : -

"To acquaint the governors and inhabitants in New England that the English army took possession of Jamaica on the loth of May last: to describe the situation and goodness of the island, the plenty of horses and cattle, and the convenience of the harbors, which are now being fortified by the English: that there are about seven thousand well armed men there, besides eight bunded more lately sent over with Major Robert Sedgwick, a commissioner in the civil affairs of the island; and that it is intended to defend the place against all attempts, and to have a good fleet always in those seas : to offer to the people of New England to remove to Jamaica, in convenient numbers, for certain specified reasons, viz., to enlighten those parts (a chief end of our undertaking the design) by people who know and fear the Lord, and that those of New England, driven from the land of their nativity into that desert and barren wilderness for conscience' sake, may remove to a land of plenty: to make these propositions to the people of New Haven, who have thoughts of removing to Delaware Bay, viz., that a part of the island next to some good harbor will be granted to them and their heirs forever without payment of rent for seven years, and then one penny an acre ; their goods of the growth and manufacture of the island shall be three years free from customs ; one of their number to be from time to time appointed governor and commander-in-chief, with persons to assist in the management of affairs; six ships will be sent for their transportation; twenty acres granted to every male above twelve years old, and ten to every other male or female, six weeks after the agreement is concluded; the whole number of males to be transported within two years."

It does not appear from the records whether the project of removing to Delaware Bay had been abandoned

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before this offer of Cromwell reached New Haven, or whethef it gave place to his proposal of Jamaica; but his offer was at first favorably entertained. When it had been before the people for consideration about three weeks, the governor desiring the town at a meeting held May 19, 1656, to give an answer: -

"Lieut. John Nash spoke what he conceived to be the mind of the generality of the town, viz., That they conceive it is a work of God, and that it should be encouraged, and if they see meet persons go before them, that is, engage in the design to go with them, or quickly after, fit to carry on the work of Christ in commonwealth and also in church affairs, they are free, and will attend the providence of God in it: provided that they have further encouragement, both of the healthfulness of the place and a prosperous going on of the war, that other places thereabouts be taken, with what also Richard Miles may bring from Capt. Martin. And that this was the town's mind, they all declared by vote."

On the 28th of the same month the matter was ^brought before the General Court for the jurisdiction, where a copy of the instructions given by his Highness the Lord Protector to Capt. Gookin was read, with letters from Capt. Gookin and letters from Major Sedg-wick from Jamaica, and the intelligence which Richard Miles (who by this time had arrived home) "brought from Capt. Martin, to whom he was sent to inquire." " The deputies from the several plantations were desired to let the Court understand what is the mind of their towns in this business." " Much debate there was about this thing, and a serious weighing and considering thereof." The proposal received less favor in this assembly than it had in the town-meeting at New Haven. Perhaps the other plantations, where husbandry was the

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principal occupation, did not feel so much need of a change as New Haven felt: perhaps the intelligence which Deacon Miles brought, had affected unfavorably even the New Haven people. The conclusion to which the General Court »f the jurisdiction came was: " Though they cannot but acknowledge the great love, care, and tender respect of his Highness the Lord Protector to New England in general, and to this colony in particular, yet for divers reasons they cannot conclude that God calls them to a present remove."

The disposition to find a place more favorably situated for commerce, seems from this time to have yielded to a purpose to make the best of the opportunities afforded by New Haven, and to a willingness so to modify the original intention of the planters that the town should be less dependent on commerce, and give more attention to agriculture, than was at first expected.

In the attempt to write the history of commerce with Delaware Bay, we have been led into a history of the efforts to connect with that commerce the establishment there, of a plantation under the New Haven colonial government. Such a relation is, however, pertinent to the subject, for these efforts grew out of the commerce which New Haven merchants prosecuted between the two places.

Of the commerce "itself there is much less to record than we have written of these futile attempts to establish at Delaware Bay the jurisdiction of New Haven and of England. The traffic was carried on by a corporation which owned two large tracts of land lying - - one on each side of the bay - above the Swedish forts. On one of these parcels of land was a trading-house

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where agents of the company remained to traffic with the Indians, and collect beaver and other pelts to be sent home by the vessels which from time to time came into the bay.

In their traffic with Virginia the New -Haven mer chants traded with the English planters, and not with the aborigines as at Delaware. Tobacco was the staple export of Virginia, but they brought away in addition, store of beaver which the planters had purchased of the Indians. In exchange for these commodities they left with the Virginians supplies brought from England and from Barbadoes, as well as from home. The following extract from the record of a general court for the jurisdiction is illustrative: -

" Mr. Allerton, Ensign Bryan, and. Mr. Augur appeared and * informed the court, that, by reason of bad biscuit and flour they have had from Janies Rogers of Milford, they have suffered much damage, and likewise the place lies under reproach at Virginia and Barbadoes, so as when other men from other places can have a ready market for their goods, that from hence lies by and will not sell, or if it do, it is for little above half so much as others sell for; they desire, therefore, that some course may be taken to remedy this grievance. The court approved of their proposition, and. thought it a. thing very just and necessary to be done, and sent for the baker and miller from Milford, who also appeared, and, after some debate, did confess there had been formerly some miscarriages. The baker imputed it, Or a great part of it, to the miller's grinding his corn so badly, which the miller now acknowledgedh might be through want of skill, but he hopes now it is and will be better, which the baker owned; and, as Mr. Allerton now informed his bread is at present better, after much debate about this business, James Rogers was told, that if, after this warning, his flour or bread prove bad, he must expect that the damage will fall upon him, unless it may be proved that the defectiveness of it came by some other "means."

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The first mention of commerce between New Haven and Barbadoes occurs in a letter written by Deputy-Go v. Goodyear, advising Gov. Stuyvesant of the deliv-eryof beef, which Goodyear had contracted to deliver upon demand, probably in payment for, the ship which the Dutch governor had sent to him at New Haven. The Dutch commissary having come for the beef at a time inopportune for Goodyear, the latter writes; "I was necessitated to furnish a great part out of what I had provided for the- Barbadoes ; 'but my en-dea»ors are and shall be to my utmost to perform my covenzftits in all things. I desire we may attend peace and neighborly love and correspondency one with another." .This letter dated Nov. 22, 1647, must have been written at a very early period in the history of the trade with Barbadoes; for sugar, the principal product of that island, began to be exported to. England in 1646. At a court held Dec. 7, 1647, " Stephen Reekes, master of a vessel that came from the Barbadoes, was called before the court to answer for some miscarriages of his on the sabbath day, viz.: .that he, the said Stephen, did, contrary to the law of God, and of this place, haul up, his ship to or toward^ the neck-bridge upon the sabbath, which is a labor proper for the six days, and not to be undertaken on the Lord's day." As Mr. Reekes was excused on the ground that he was a stranger, and " did not do it out of contempt but ignorantly," it is evident that vessels not owned in New Haven, participated thus early in transporting hither the products of Barbadoes. In 1651 Mr. Goodyear sold Shelter Island, which he had owned about ten years, for " sixteen hun-

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dred pounds of good, merchantable, muscovado sugar.1 One of the purchasers certainly was a resident of Bar badoes, and apparently two others; so that it may be presumed that the sugar was delivered in the West Indies, and brought away by Goodyear in his own ship. To illustrate further the use made of this product of Barbadoes as a medium of exchange, reference is made to the fact already mentioned, that Lieut. Budd sold his house in New Haven for a hogshead of sugar. A more interesting illustration is that which Dr. Bacon thus records in his Historical Discourses: *' In the year 1665, on the day of the anniversary thanksgiving, a contribution was ' given in' for ' the saints that were in want in England.' This was at the time when, in that country, so many ministers, ejected from their places of settlement, were, by a succession of enactments, studiously cut off from all means of obtaining brea* for themselves, their wives, and their children. The contribution was made, as almost all payments of debts or of taxes were made at that period, in grain and other commodities; there being no money in circulation, and no banks by which credit could be converted into currency. It was paid over to the deacons in the February •following. We, to whom it is so easy, in the present state of commerce, to remit the value of any contribution to almost any part of the world, cannot easily imagine the circuitous process by which that contribution reached the 'poor saints' whom it was intended to relieve. By the deacons, the articles contributed were probably first exchanged to some extent

1 "Muscovado. The name given to unrefined or moist sugar." - Brandc 's Dictionary.

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for other commodities more suitable for exportation. Then, the amount was sent to Barbadoes, with which -island the merchants of this place had intercourse, and was exchanged for sugars, which were thence sent to England, to the care of four individuals, two of whom were Mr. Hooke the former teacher, and Mr. Newman the ruling elder, of this church. In 1671 Mr. Hooke, in a letter to the church, said, ' Mr. Caryl, Mr. Barker, Mr. Newman, and myself have received sugars from Barbadoes to the value of about ninety pounds, and have disposed of it to several poor ministers, and ministers' widows. And this fruit of your bounty is very thankfully received and acknowledged by us.' "

Commerce between New Haven and the mother-country was chiefly carried on by way of Boston and Barbadoes. Bills of exchange on London were purchased with beaver-skin's and other products of New England exported from Boston, or with sugar procured by barter in Barbadoes. The funds thus obtained were invested in English goods, sometimes by the New Haven merchants in person when visiting their native land, but usually their correspondents residing in London. These English goods were sent out in the ships which sailed every spring for Massachusetts Bay, and at Boston were re-shipped to New Haven.

Allusion has been made to three vessels, which in 1639 .came to New Haven direct from England. We have now to speak of an attempt made at New Haven to establish at a later date a direct trade with the mother-country. Suth an achievement was regarded as

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beyond the ability of any individual, and yet so desirable as to demand a general combination of effort. A company was formed, in which apparently all who were able to help, took more or less stock. This company, called "The Ship Fellowship," bought or built a ship which they made ready for sea in January, 1646. She way chartered for a voyage to London, by another association called "The Company of Merchants of New Haven." The feoffees of the ship-fellowship were " Mr. Wakeman, Mr. Atwater, Mr. Crane, and Goodman Miles." The company of merchants .consisted of " Mr. Theophilus Eaton (now governor), Mr. Stephen Goodyear, Mr. Richard Malbon, and Mr. Thomas Gregson." Wjnthrop says, "She was laden , with pease and some wheat, all in bulk, with about two hundred West India hides, and store of beaver and plate, so as it was estimated in all at five thousand pounds." Seventy persons embarked in her, some of whom were counted among the most valued inhabitants of New Haven. Dr. Bacon has graphically depicted the departure of the vessel, and the solicitude felt for her safety by those whom she left behind. " In the month of January, 1646, the harbor being frozen over, a passage is cut through the ice, with saws, for three miles; and.'the great ship' on which so much depends is out upon the waters and ready to "begin her voyage. Mr. Davenport arid a great company of the people go out upon the ice, to g^ve the last farewell to their friends. The pastor in. solemn prayer commends them to the protection of God, and they depart. The winter passes away; the ice-bound harbor breaks into ripples' before the soft breezes of the spring.

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Vessels from England arrive on the coast; but they bring no tidings of the New Haven ship. Vain is the solicitude of wives and children, of kindred and friends. Vain are all inquiries.

' They ask the waves, and ask the felon winds, And question every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each beaked promontory.'

"Month after .month, hope waits for tidings. Affection, unwilling to believe'the worst, frames one conjecture and another to account for the delay. Perhaps they have been blown out of their track upon some "•Undiscovered shore, from which they will by and by return, to surprise us with their safety: perhaps they have been captured, and are % now in confinement. How many prayers are offered for the return of that ship, with its priceless treasures of life and affection! At last anxiety gradually settles down into despair. Gradually they learn to speak of the wise and public-spirited Gregson, the tyrave and soldier-like Turner, the adventurous Lamberton, that ' right godly woman' the wife of Mr. Goodyear, and the others, as friends whose faces are never more to be seen among the living. In November, 1647, their estates are settled, and they are put upon record as deceased." *

Besides its ,commerce with the places which have. been.indicated, New Haven made occasional ventures out of the usual channels, as opportunity offered. Boston had considerable trade with the* Canary Islands,

1 Of this ship, and of the strange atmospheric phenomenon which the people of New Haven regarded as a miraculous tableau of her fate, some further account may be found in Appendix III.

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and Winthrop has put on record an attempt which New Haven made to share in it. We copy from his journal under the date of July 2, 1643 : -

"Here arrived one Mr. Carman, master of the ship called (blank), of one hundred and eighty tons. He went from New Haven in December last, laden with clapboards for the Canaries, being eanestly commended to the Lord's protection by the church1"'' there. At the island of Palma he was set upon by a Turkish pirate of three hundred tons, twenty-six pieces of ordnance, and two hundred men. He fought with her three hours, having but twenty men and but' seven pieces of ordnance that he could use, and his muskets were unserviceable with rust. The Turk lay across his hawse, so as he was forced to shoot through his own hoodings, and by these shot killed many Turks. Then the Turk lay by bis side, and boarded him with near one hundred men, and cut all his ropes, &c.; but his shot having killed the captain of the Turkish ship, arid broken her tiller, the Turk took in his own ensign, and fell off from him, but in such haste as he left about fifty of his men aboard him. Then the master and some df his men came"up, and fought with those fifty, hand to hand, and slew so* many of them as the rest leaped overboard. The master had many wounds on his head and body, and divers pf his men were wounded, yet but one slain. So with much difficulty he got to the island (being in view thereof), where he was very courteously entertained, and supplied with whatever he wanted."

Besides merchants engaged in coasting and foreign trade, there were shopkeepers in New Haven who kept for sale an assortment of such goods as were required by the people of the town and of the other plantations. One of these was a widow named Stolyon, living in the Herefordshire quarter, in a house which Richard Platt of Milford built and still continued to own. A disagreement between her and Capt. Turner, concerning a bargain in which he was to buy cloth of her, and she to buy

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cows of him, served to put on record specifications in a charge of extortion,' from which one may glean some knowledge of prices, and of the methods in which trade was carried on : -

" 1. The captain complained that she sold some cloth to William Bradley, at 20 shillings per yard, that cost her about 12 shillings, for which she received wheat at 3 shillings 6 pence per bushel, and sold it presently to the baker at 5 shillings per bushel, who received it of William Bradley, only she forbearing her money six months. 2. That the doth which Lieutenant Seeley bought of her for 20 shillings per yard last year, she hath sold this year for seven bushels of wheat a yard, to be delivered in her chamber, which she confest. 3. That she would not take wampum for commodities at six a peniny, though it were the same she had paid to others at six, but she would have seven a penny. Thomas Robinson testified that his wife gave her 8 pence in wampum at seven a penny, though she had but newly received the same wampum of Mrs. Stolyon at six. 4.' That she sold primers at 9 pence apiece which cost but 4 pence here in New England. 5. That she would not take beaver which was merchantable with others, at 8 shillings a pound, but she said she would have it at 7 shillings, and well dried in the sun or in an oven. Lieutenant Seeley, the marshal, and Isaac Mould testified it. John Dillingham by that means lost 5 shillings in a skin (that cost him 20 shillings of Mr. Evance, and sold to her), viz., 2 shillings 6 pence in the weight and 2 shillings 6 pence in the price. 6. She sold a piece of cloth to the two Mecars at 23 ^hillings 4 pence per yard in wampum: the cloth cost her about 12 shillings per yard, and sold when wampum was in great request 7. That she sold a yard of the same cloth to a man of Connecticut at 22 shillings per yard, to be delivered in Indian corn at 2 shillings per bushel at home. 8. She sold English mohair at 6 shillings per yard, which Mr. Goodyear and Mr. Atwater affirmed might be bought in England for 3 shillings 2 pence per yard at the utmost. 9. She sold thread after the rate of 12 shillings per pound, which cost not above 2 shillings 2 pence in Old England. 10. That she sold needles at one a penny which might be bought in Old England at 12 pence or 18 pence per hundred, as Mr. Francis Newman affirmeth."

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These specifications will give the reader some idea not only of prices, but of that scarcity of money which the records everywhere make apparent. Dr. Bacon has taken notice of the fact that when Gov. Eaton died, " the richest man in New Haven, with something like seven hundred dollars' worth of plate in his house, had only about ten dollars in money." The inventories of the time seldom mentioned gold or silver coin. Rates were collected in wheat, rye, pease, or maize., at a price fixed by the court. These grains and beaver-skins, being always marketable, were much used in trade. Wampum, or Indian money, consisted, says Trumbull, of "small beads, most curiously wrought out of shells, and perforated in the centre, so that they might be strung on belts, in chains and bracelets. These were of several sorts. The Indians in Connecticut, and in New,England in general, ma9e black, blue, and white wampum. Six of the white beads passed for a penny, and three of the black or blue for the same." In 'December, 1645, "it w^e ordered that wampum shall go for current pay in this plantation in any payment under twenty shillings, if half be black and half be white; and, in case any question shall arise about the badness of any wampum, Mr. Goodyear shall judge*if they repair to him." The scarcity of money naturally occasioned much use of credit; the probate-records showing lists of small debts, some of them less than a shilling, due to and by the estate inventoried. The town-records also bear witness to the same fact, allowing us to see that when A owed B, and B owed C, arrangements were made for A to deliver to C some

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commodity which he required, and thus to cancel both debts.

Although the leading planters of Quinnipiac relied on commerce as the chief meanns of prosperity to themselves and to their town, they all engaged from the first to some extent in husbandry. As the years advanced, and they found themselves disappointed in their town as a seat of 'commerce, and unable to remove to a place more opportune to their pursuits, they set a relatively greater, if not an absolutely greater value on husbandry. For the first year or two, tillage was confined to the home-lots; then it was extended to the fields in the first division of upland. Afterward farmsteads were established in the second division; some occupied by the owners themselves, and some by tenants, or by. bailiffs as agents for the proprietors. At East Farms, a neighborhood on the west side of the Quinnipiac, were the allotments of David Atwater, Nathanael Turner, William Potter, Richard Mansfield, Francis Brewster, and Gov. Eaton. The governor had another farm at Stoney River, in East Haven, consisting of fifty acres of meadow, "with upland answering that proportion." Mr. Brewster must also have bad land of the second division elsewhere than at East Farms, as that farm contained only one hundred and fifty-four acres of upland, and thirty-three of meadow. This land of Mr. Brewster soon passed into the possession of William Bradley ; and Gov. Eaton's farm, " by the brick-kilns," was, by his children, transferred to their half-brother, Thomas Yale. The four families of Atwater, Turner,

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Potter, and Mansfield have never entirely disappeared from that neighborhood. Mr. Davenport's farm was on the opposite side of the Quinnipiac. A portion of it remained in his family for six generations.1 Mr. Gregson had a farm in East Haven, near "Morris Cove, or, as it was then called, Solitary Cove. Dodd says, in his East Haven Register, that Gregson placed his family there before embarking 'for England in " the great ship;" but there is no sufficient evidence that the family vacated their stately house in the town, or that Gregson ever intended to give to the cultivation of the farm his personal attention. Mr. Good-year's farm was north of the town, and in the neighborhood of Pine Rock.

The planters brought with them, or procured from Massachusetts, plants and seeds which soon yielded the vegetables and fruits they had been accustomed to enjoy in England. On the first day of July, 1640, a nauglrty boy T*as, by order' of the court, " whipped for running from his master, and stealing fruit out of Goodman Ward's" lot or garden." Goodman Ward must have given early attention to the planting of his currant-bushes, to have fruit in the third summer of the plantation's history. The English grains, especially wheat, rye, and pease, were sown, and seem to have rewarded the labor of the husbandman more bountifully than in our time, producing a supply for the home

1 A diagram of Mr. Davenport's farm, as surveyed by Mark Pearce in 1646, may be seen in the Town Records, Vol. III. p. 296. "The general total of "the lands belonging to this farm is seven hundred eighty-three acres and two rods." The diagram and survey were recorded by Rev. John Davenport of Stamford, grandson of Rev. John Davenport of New Haven.

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market, and some surplus for export. From the aborigines, the English learned to plant Indian corn, and to stimulate its growth with fish. Cattle - such as swine, goats, oxen, and horses - were suffered to pasture on unenclosed lands, and increased in number from year to year. Cows - when the public cow-pasture did not furnish sufficient grass - were driven abroad under the care of herdsmen, whose active aid they sometimes' needed in leaving the soft, treacherous swamps where the feed was most luxuriant.

In the other plantations of the jurisdiction, husbandry occupied the time and attention of a much larger part of thejeople than at New Haven. At Milford, a few planters were engaged in commerce; and some who were artisans worked at their trades, but the population was not sufficiently numerous to support many kinds of handicraft. Guilford was even more closely limited to tillage as an occupation. In consequence of the decision of Thomas Nash to settle at New Haven, serious inconvenience was experienced for want of a smith, till, in 1652, Thomas Smith came from Fairfield, on the invitation of the planters, who gave him a considerable tract of land, " on condition of serving the town in the trade of a smith, upon just and moderate terms, for the space of five year's."

The annals of husbandry are not eventful, and the records afford but little information upon that subject which would interest the general reader. There were pounds and pound-keepers, defective fences, unruly cattle", fines, and awards for damages. We read in the town-records of New Haven : " It is ordered; that, for what blackbirds John Brocket or others kill, he or

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they applying themselves thereto shall receive from the treasurer after the rate of ten shillings a thousand." At first a considerable bounty was offered for heads of foxes and wolves; but in 1645, "the court, being informed that no man attends this service as his employment and business, but improves opportunity as he finds it occasionally, ordered that the treasurer, henceforward pay only two pounds of powder and four pounds of bullets os, shot, or the value thereof, for every wolf's head, and ofie shilling for every old fox's head, and sixpence for every young one, to such of this plantation as within New Haven limits kill and so bring them."

The great variety of useful arts practised in N«w Haven obviated, in some degree, the inconvenience which the smaller plantations in the neighborhood must otherwise have experienced. Few instances occur in the history of colonization, where within ten years from the commencement there was such fulness of "Equipment for producing' at -hoihe the requirements of civilized life, as at New Haven. The records do not enable us to make a complete list of its artisans, or ot the crafts at which they wrought, and the writer has never made a systematic attempt .to collect the names of such trades as are incidentally mentioned; but these are some which he has remembered, or with but little search has collected : viz., sawyers, carpenters, ship-carpenters, joiners, thatchers, chimney-sweepers, brick-makers, bricklayers, plasterers, tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, weavers, tailors, hatters, blacksmiths, gunsmiths,, cutlers, nailers, millers, bakers, coopers, and potters. Of these handicrafts some are so nearly related that a work-

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man easily passed from one to another. Accordingly we find the same person appearing as a carpenter, a ship-carpenter, and a joiner; and his neighbor described at one time as a shoemaker, and at another as a tanner. So that, with more than tJie usual variety of a new-settlement, there wis something of the versatility commonly developed by emigration.

We have already had occasion to speak of the now obsolete handicraft by which logs were sawn into the boards and planks -necessary for the buildings and palings of the planters. It may seem to us a slow process; but, as sawmills had not at that time been introduced into the mother-country, it did not seem so to them. " The first recorded attempt to establish a sawmill in Great Britain was made near London, in 1663, by a Dutchman, in whose native country they had long been in use; but the enterprise was abandoned on account of the opposition of hand-sawyers." J A tree having been felled and cross-cut, one of the logs was rolled upon a frame over a pit. Then, the master-workman or "top-man" standing above to guide the work, and the " pit-man" or assistant standing beneath, they pulled the saw up and down, - briskly if at work by the piece, patiently if by the day. The maximum price of sawing by the hundred, as determined by the General Court in 1640, being four and sixpence for boards, five shillings for planks, and five and sixpence for slit work, and the wages of the two men who wrought at a saw-pit amounting, according to the same tariff, to four and sixpence for a day's work, we may conclude that at least one hundred feet of lumber was produced per day by each pair of workmen.

1 Appleton's New American Cyclopaedia, art. " Saw."

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The trade of carpentery had many followers in a place where dwellings were to be erected within a short period for more than a hundred families. William Andrews appears to have stood at the head of this guild. He contracted in 1639 to build the meeting-house, but let out some parts of the work to Thomas Munson and Jarvis Boykin, who, with the consent of Andrews, transferred some part of their contract to Thomas Saul and William Gibbons. The two carpenters last named did not fulfil their engagement "to make the roof of the tower and turret tight, to keep out wet," and were probably absent, at least temporarily, when the defect was discovered; for a question arose between Andrews and the two who had contracted with him, which party should make the work good. "Because there was a defect of testimony on all sides, the Court advised them to consult together, and do it amongst them, so as the meeting-house may be kept dry without delay.'" The name of Thomas Saul does not appear after thjs transaction, but William Gibbons was some years later a resident of fhe town. The meeting-house needing further repairs a few years afterward, a large committee of carpenters was appointed to "consider whether then house may stay safely another year without repairs; if not, then how it may be best done for-most safety to the town, and least charge; also, whether the tower and turret may safely stand, and will not in a short time decay the house; and, if taken down, . then what will be the charge of that, and to make the roof tight and comely again." The committee consisted of William Andrews, Thomas Munson, Jarvis Boykin, John Bassett, Robert

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Bassett, George Larrymore, Jonathan Marsh, and Thomas Morris. These were, doubtless, master-workmen, having under them journeymen and apprentices. The last named wrought as a ship-carpenter, but his appointment on this committee indicates that he did' not confine himself to ship-building.

Some of the ship-carpenters in the plantation, besides Morris, were James Russell, William Russell, George Ward, Lawrence Ward, and Daniel Paul. The building of a ship of large size brought in workmen from other colonies. It lis impossible to determine conclu-sively whether the New Haven artisans were responsible for the fatal c'rankness which Winthrop attributes to the vessel in which so many of their townsmen lost their lives in 1646. Rev. James Piefpont, in his letter to Mather, testifies that she was built in Rhode Island, and nothing appears to invalidate his testimony. The only occasion for doubt is found in the improbability that the feoffees would purchase rather than build; but perhaps the business required a ship sooner than one could be produced in a port where nothing larger than a shallop or a pinnace had ever been launched. If Pierpont was correct in his apprehension that she came from Rhode Island, the first large ship was built at New Haven immediately after the Rhode Island vessel sailed, and by the same " ship-fellowship " to which that vessel belonged. In August, 1646, one of the feoffees desired the justice of the court about some nails that a workman had stolen from the ship. In October "it was propounded that help might be afforded to launch the ship, for Goodman Paul informed the governor that "the keel would rot if it were not launched before winter.

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Brother Leeke had liberty to draw wine for them that work at the ship." In the following January there was a lawsuit in which. the plaintiff, accounting for the fact that Sergt. Jeffrey 'did not go as master of a shallop on " a voyage to Guilford, Saybrook, and back to New,. Haven," affirmed' that " Mr. Crane, Mr. Wake-man, and Mr. Atwjater, intrusted as feoffees for the building of a ship at New Haven, desired Sergeant Jeffrey might be spared to go to the Massachusetts about rigging and other occasions concerning the said ship."

In 1648 another vessel was built at New Haven, and the interest felt in- it was so general that one can hardly believe it was the adventure of an individual; though there is no definite information that it belonged to the ship-fellowship whose feoffees had purchased a vessel in Rhode Island, and in 1646 were building one at New Haven.

The production of leather and the manufacture of shoes increased so Tapidly, that, within nine years after the commencement of the plantation at New Haven, shoes were made for exportation. At first the .tanners spoiled many hides through ignorance, as they alleged, of the tan of the country; but, even after they had professedly acquired •skill, in the use of the native bark, poor leather was sometimes produced. There was a lawsuit in 1647, in which John Meigs, R shoemaker, sued Henry Gregory of the same trade for damage suffered from the unworkmanlike manner in , which thirteen dozen pairs of shoes had been made. It appears that Meigs furnished the leather and the thread,-and carried them to Gregory "ready cut out," agreeing

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to pay him one shilling per pair for making them. Abundant testimony was borne by persons who had bought som^of the shoes, that they were worthless, coming to pieces in a few days. But some testifying thatnthe leather tore, and others that the seams ripped, the Court referred the matter to a committee of shoemakers and tanners, who reported as follows: - " We apprehend tbis: that the leather is very bad, not tanned, nor fit to be sold f of'serviceable leather; but it wrongs the country, nor can a man make good work of a great deal of it. And we find.the workmanship bad also: First, there is not sufficient stuff put in the thread, and instead of hemp it is flax, and the stitches are too long, and the threads not drawn home, and there wants wax on the thread, and the awl is too big for the thread. We ordinarily put in seven threads, and here is but five; so that, according to our best light, we lay the cause both upon the workmanship and the badness of the leather.

"Goodman Gregory, upon this testimony, seemed to be convinced that he had not done his part, but then laid the fault on Goodman Meigs, that he was the more slight in it through his encouragement, who said to him,' Flap them up: they are to go far enough.' In this statement he was confirmed by two witnesses, who had heard Meigs say to him,' Flap them up together: they are to go far enough.'" '

Goodman Meigs being called to propound his damage, instanced five particulars: 1st, damage to his name; 2d, damage to Mr. Evance, to whom he had engaged himself to supply him with these goods for exportation to the value of thirty pounds sterling; 3d, damage in having his wares turned back upon his hands, Mr. Evance having refused to accept them; 4th, 'hinderance in his trade, people having on account of these shoes shunned to buy any wares of him; 5th, money paid several men for satisfaction.

222 " The plaintiff and defendant professing, upon the Court's demand, that they had no more to say, and the Court considering the case as it had been presented, debated, and proved, found them both faulty. Goodman Gregory had transgressed rules of righteousness, both in reference to the 'country and to Goodman Meigs, though his fault to Goodman Meigs is the more excusable because of that encouragement Goodman Meigs gave him to be slight in his workmanship; though he should not have taken any encouragement to do evil, and should have complained to some magistrate, and not have wrougkt such leather in such a manner into shoes, by which the country, or- whosoever wears them, must be deceived. But the greater fault and guilt lies upon John Meigs for putting such untanned, horny, unserviceable leather into shoes, and for encouraging Goodman Gregory to slight workmanship upon a motive that the shoes were to go far enough, as if rules of righteousness reached not other places and countries.

" The Court proceeded to sentence, and ordered Goodman Meigs to pay ten pounds as a fine to the jurisdiction, with satisfaction to every particular person, as damage shall be required and proved. And further, the Court ordered that none of the faulty shoes be carried out of the jurisdiction to deceive men, the shoes- deserving rather to be burnt than sold, if there had been a law to that purpose ; yet in the jurisdiction they may be sold, but then only as deceitful ware, and the buyer may know them to be such. They ordered also Goodman Gregory, for his slight, faulty workmanship and fellowship in the deceit, to pay five pounds as a fine to the jurisdiction, and to pay the charges of the court, and that he require nothing of Goodman Meigs for his loss of time- in this work, whether it were more or less; and the .court thought themselves called speedily and seriously to consider how these deceits may be for time to come prevented or duly punished." If the contemporary records of the jurisdiction were extant, we should probably find some legislation prompted by this case. Allusion to such legislation is made on the town-records a little later, when sealers of leather were appointed, and sworn " to discharge the

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trust committed to them in sealing leather according toAe Jurisdiction General Court's order." It waste* tJTe same time ordered that calf-skins, deer-skins, ana goat-skins which are fully tanned should be sealed, and shoemakers were allowed fb use them for upper leather; but, as such shoes were inferior to those made of neat's leather, "the court ordered that every shoemaker in this town, mark all those shoes he makes of neat's leather, before he sell them, with a N, - upon the lap withinside, below the place where they be tied." "It was propounded to the shoemakers, that, seeing hides are now near as cheap as ordinarily they are in England, shoes might be sold more reasonable than they have been; and the shoemakers promised they would consider of it."

We have already seen that biscuit was shipped to Virginia and the West Indies. But, according to English usage, bread was made in the shop of the baker for families in the town. It was of three grades : the white loaf, the wheaten loaf, and the household loaf. "Every person within this jurisdiction, who shall bake bread for sale, shall have a distinct mark for his bread, and' keep the true assizes hereafter expressed and appointed." Then follows the assize fixing the weight of a penny white loaf, a penny wheaten loaf, and a penny household loaf respectively, when the bushel of wheat is at three shillings, and diminishing the weight of the loaf as the price of wheat increases. When a bushel of wheat cost three shillings, which seems to have been regarded as a minimum price, the weight of the penny white loaf was to be

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eleven and a quarter ounces ; the weight of the penny wheaten loaf, seventeen and a quarter ounces; and the weight of the penny household loaf, twenty-three ounces. When wheat was at six shillings and sixpence per bushel, which is the highest price named in the tariff, the penny white loaf must weigh six ounces, the penny wheat loaf nine and a half ounces, and the penny household loaf twelve and a quarter ounces.

The inspector, having been sworn to the faithful discharge of his office, " is hereby authorized to enter into any house, either with the constable or marshal, or without, where he understands that any bread is baked for sale, and to weigh such bread as often as he, seeth cause; and, after one notice or warning, to seize all such bread as he 'findeth defective in weight, or not marked according to this order. And all such forfeitures shall be divided, one third to the officer for his care and pains, and the rest to the poor of the place."

Iron-works were projected as early as 1665. John Winthrop, jun., interested in mining, and Stephen Goodyear, interested in every enterprise which promised to be advantageous to New Haven, united insetting up a bloomery and forge, at the outlet of Saltonstall .Lake. The people of New Haven favored the undertaking by contributing 4abor in"building a dam, and by conceding the privilege of cutting on the^ common land all the wood needed for making charcoal. They hoped that the works would bring trade* and that Winthrop would fix his residence in New Haven. The ore%was transported from North Haven, partly by boats down the Quinni-piac and up Farm River, and partly by carts. After

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two or three years, Goodyear having died, and Winthrop having ceased to think of New Haven as a place of residence, the works were leased to Capt. Clark and Mr. .Payne of Boston. Iron continued to be made for some years, but the institution did not fulfil the hopes of its projectors, or of the public.

RELIGION AND MORALS

Two classes of writers differing widely in their feelings towards the Puritan emigrants who came to New England resemble each other in manifesting a singular ignorance. The planters of New England never were advocates of religious liberty ; and there is. equal sciolism in eulogizing them as such, and in criticising them for inconsistency with their professions when they expelled from their territory those who publicly dissented from their religious opinions and from their forms of worship. .If the Puritans had been in power in England, they would have suppressed the ritualism of Laud as heartily as Laud punished non-conformity. Overr powered in England, they came to America to find freedom to worship according to their own consciences, and not to establish religious liberty for all men of every creed. The restrictions which had been placed upon them, and the sufferings to which they had been subjected in their native land, instead of leading them to be tolerant of other forms of Christianity, served rather to render them more earnest to secure to themselves, and to those who should be like-minded, the territory to which they had emigrated, and upon which they were to expend their labors and their estates.

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They saw no other way of securing the end for which they had exiled themselves, than that of exclusiveness and intolerance.

In accordance with such convictions and feelings, the planters of the New Haven Colony not only established, in the several plantations, churches such as they approved, but took care that no other than " approved churches " should be gathered, and that, if they should find it impossible to prevent the formation of other churches, the members of them should have no political power. It was ordered: -

" That all the people of God within this jurisdiction, who are not in a church way, being orthodox in judgment, and not scandalous in-life, shall have full liberty to gather themselves into a church estate, provided they do it in a Christian way, with due observation - of the rules of Christ, revealed in his Word; provided also, that this Court doth not, nor hereafter will, approve of any such company of persons, as shall join in any pretended way of church-fellowship, unless they shall first, in due season, acquaint both the magistrates and the elders of the churches within this colony, where and when they intend to join, and have their approbation therein." Nor shall any person, being a member of any church which shall be gathered without such notice given and approbation had, or who is not a member of some church in New England approved by the magistrates and churches of this colony, be admitted to the freedom of this jurisdiction."

It is not sufficient to say, that, according to the theory and practice of the New Haven Colony, the approved churches were established by law; but, since the seven men who were chosen to be the foundation work covenanted together as a church before they organized themselves as a civil court, it would be more accurate to say that the civil authority was instituted

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by the church, than that the church was established by the state. This method of organization was undoubtedly designed to secure " the purity and peace of the ordinances to themselves and their posterity;" that is, to exclude, as far as they could, all other forms of Christianity. Such Was their design, whatever may be the verdict of the present age respecting the breadth of their scope, or the equilibrium of their justice. It is easy to see that such a foundation could not, and ought not to, endure through all the changes of opinion introduced by their posterity and by later emigrants. It is not easy to show that it was either unrighteous or impolitic as a temporary arrangement designed to secure to exiles from their native land the peaceable enjoyment of that "purity of the ordinances " for which they had left their homes, and in regard to which they were all of one mind.

The "approved churches " were of the Congregational order, in distinction from dependency on the one hand and from diocesan or presbyterial combination on the other. Some of the planters were High Church Separatists, regarding it as wrong to be in fellowship with the Church of England. Those who were more liberal had lost all desire for Episcopacy, if for no other reason because it was for -them impracticable. To organize congregations, and place them under the government of the English hierarchy, would have been a surrender of themselves to the yoke they had slipped from. However they differed . one from another in their theories of the church, the people of New England had, before the settlement of New Haven, with one accord, practically renounced Episcopacy. The planters of

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Salem seem to have had no plan for their ecclesiastical organization till the time for action was close at hand. The adoption of Congregationalism was a surprise, at least to some of them. A few expressed their dissent by worshipping apart from the majority, and according to the forms prescribed by act of Parliament. After the violent suppression of this schism, there was no attempt among the Puritans of New England to organize congregations in connection with the Church of England. Some of them, when they returned to the mother country, showed by their adhesion to the national church that they had not been Congrega-tionalists through conviction that Episcopacy was unlawful. Others, on their return home, conscientiously dissented from the established religion, and cast in their lot with the Separatists, however feeble and despised. t Presbyterianism was but little known to most of the planters of New Haven; and what Davenport had learned of it by his experience in Holland had led him to dislike a classis almost as much as a bishop.

Adopting Congregationalism, the people of the New Haven Colony, like their brethren throughout New England, intended by it something as different from Independency as from Presbyterianism or Episcopacy. Their views and feelings may perhaps be illustrated by a quotation from one of themselves better than in any other way. John Wakeman, who resided at New Haven, on a lot at the corner of Chapel and York Streets vacated by the removal to Milford of the widow Baldwin to whom it was originally allotted, was for some years the treasurer of the jurisdiction, the representative of the plantation in the Colonial Court, and a deacon of the

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. church. Drawing near to the end of life, he felt himself called to pro'fess his belief, not only in the facts which underlie Christianity, but in that theory of the Christian church which prevailed in New England. In his last will and testament he writes, -

" I, John Wakeman of New Haven, being weak in body, but of sound understanding and memory, in expectation of my great change, do make this my last will and testament. First, I commend my soul into the hands of my Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, trusting to'be saved by his merits and intercession, and my body to be buried at the discretion of my executors and friends, in hope of a joyful resurrection; testifying my thankfulness to God for the free manifestation of his grace to me in Christ, and for the liberty and fellowship vouchsafed me with his people in his ordinances in a Congregational way, which I take to be the way of Christ, orderly walked in according to his rules; but I do testify against absolute independency of churches, and perfection of any in light or actings, and against compulsion of conscience to concur with the church without inward satisfaction to conscience, and persecuting such as dissent upo" this ground, which I take to be an abuse of the power given for edification by Christ, who is (the) only lord of the conscience."

This profession of Mr. Wakeman agrees, for substance, with the doctrine concerning Congregationalism taught by the elders of the churches, and received by the people. Even that part of it which relates to freedom of conscience, and the abuse of power in persecuting, fairly represents the public sentiment of the colony, so far. as erroneous thinking, apart from the promulgation of error, is concerned; for, while banishing or otherwise maltreating those who dissented from the majority, the law-makers were careful to declare that the offenders were not punished for wrong think-

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ing, but for "broaching, publishing, and maintaining" their erroneous sentiments. The law against heresy reads,-

"Although no creature be lord or have power over the faith and consciences of men, nor may constrain them to believe or profess against their consciences, yet to restrain or provide against such as may bring in dangerous errors or heresies, tending to corrupt and destroy the souls of men, it is ordered, That if any Christian within this jurisdiction shall go about to subvert or destroy the Christian faith or religion by broaching, publishing, or maintaining any dangerous error or heresy, or shall endeavor to draw or seduce others- thereunto, every such person so offending, and continuing obstinate therein, after due means of conviction, shall be fined, banished, or otherwise severely punished, as the court of magistrates duly considering the offence, with the aggravating circumstances and danger like to ensue, shall judge meet."

Winthrop's journal affords a telling illustration of the maintenance of this distinction in the neighboring colony of Massachusetts; Recording the punishment of a Baptist, who was too poor to be fined, he says, " He was ordered to be .whipped, not for his opinion, but for reproaching the Lord's ordinance, and for his bold and evil, behavior, both at home and in the court." That the distinction was not merely theoretical, is evident from the fact that many Baptists were unmolested, among them the first two presidents of Harvard College.: Dunster, the first president, was an avowed anti-pedobaptist; yet he held the office for fourteen years, and might have held it longer had he not, in a moment of excitement, burst the bonds of his usual discretion, and inveighed openly, in the church at Cambridge, against infant baptism. For

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. this offence he was obliged to resign, but suffered no further molestation. His successor, while approving of infant baptism, held' that immersion was the. only mode; and his peculiarity in this respect was known before his election. "Mr. Mather and Mr. Norton were desired by the overseers of the college to tender unto Rev. Mr. Charles Chauncey the place of president, with the stipend of one hundred pounds per annum, to be paid out of the country treasury; and withal to signify to him that it is expected and desired that he forbear to disseminate or publish any tenets concerning immersion in baptism, and celebration of the Lord's Supper at evening, or to expose the received doctrine therein." x Mr. Chauncey agreed to this stipulation, and was never disturbed.

There were Baptists at New Haven, but no action was taken against them by the civil authority. Perhaps their immunity is sufficiently accounted for when we learn that the wife of Gov. Eaton was one of them. "The first discovery of her peremptory engagement was by her departing from the assembly after the morning sermon when the Lord's Supper was administered, and the same afternoon, after sermon, when baptism was administered, judging herself not capable of the former, because she conceited herself to be not baptized, nor durst she be present at the latter, imagining that psedo-baptism is unlawful." Mr. Davenport, finding that others of his flock were also astray, undertook to prove in a sermon on the next Lord's Day that " baptism is come in place of circumcision, and is to be administered unto infants;" which he himself says was done

1 Mass. Hist Coll., X., p. 175. Pierce's History of Harvard College.

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" with a blessing from God for the recovery of some from this error, and for the establishment of others in truth. Only Mrs. Eaton [received] no benefit by all, but continued as before." It is, however, more probable that the immunity was due to the discretion of the dissenters, who did not attempt, so far as appears, to make proselytes. That there was some jocose talk about banishment, as if such a penalty might follow the dissemination of their opinions, appears in the trial of Mrs. Brewster for sundry vituperative speeches concerning the church, its pastor, and the magistrates. A maid testified that " she heard Mrs. Brewster, speaking aloud to Mrs. Eaton concerning banishment, say, they could not banish her but by a general court, and, if it come to that, she wished Mrs. Eaton to come to her and acquaint her with her judgment and grounds about baptizing, and she would by them seduce some other women, and then she, the said Mrs. Brewster, would complain to the court of Mrs. Eaton, and the other women should complain of her, as being thus seduced, and so they would be banished together, and she spoke of going to Rhode Island. Mrs. Brewster confesseth the charge, but saith she spoke in jest and laughing." *

1 The action of the church in reference to Mrs. Eaton may be seen in the Appendix to Bacon's Historical Discourses.

The pastor, finding that she had received no benefit from his sermon, put himself " to a further task for her good," writing a treatise which was read to her in private. This effort, however, was as fruitless as the former. What course the church might have taken with her for what they regarded as the error of her judgment, or for turning her back on its ordinances, does not appear; for, at this stage of the proceedings, " divers rumors were spread up and down the town of her scandalous walking in her family." " Upon inquiry, it appeared the reports were true, and more evils were discovered than we had heard of. We now began to see that

234 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. While the few Baptists in the colony were quiet in their dissent, the Quakers were more troublesome. The first to appear was Humphrey Norton, who, haying been banished from Plymouth, came to Southold, whence, within six months after his banishment from Plymouth, he was sent as a prisoner to New Haven. This was in 1658. It is an illustration of the prevalent neglect to distinguish between the jurisdiction court and the court of the principal plantation, that he was indicted before the plantation court of New Haven. Mr.NLeete of Guilford and Mr. Fenn of Milford were, indeed, called in to assist; and the proceedings were afterward read to, and approved by, the court of the jurisdiction. The charges against Norton were: -

" 1. That he hath grievously and in manifold wise traduced, slandered, and reproached Mr. Youngs, pastor of the church at Southold, in his good name, and the honor due to him for his work's sake, together with his ministry, and all our ministers and ordinances.

" 2. That he hath endeavored to seduce the people from their

God took us off from treating with her any further about the error of her judgment till we might help forward by the will of God her repentance for those evils in life, believing that else these evils would by the just judgment of God hinder from receiving light." Seventeen specifications of " scandalous walking " were presented to the church; the first charging her with striking her mother-in-law, the second with an assault upon her step-daughter, and all showing a violent, ungoverned temper. After waiting nine months for satisfaction, " with much grief of heart and many tears the church proceeded to censure," cutting her off from its communion.

The conduct of Mrs. Eaton was so strange as to suggest the conjecture that she was either insane, or in that state of nervous excitement which borders on insanity, and that medical treatment would have been more appropriate than church discipline.

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due attendance upon the ministry and the sound doctrines of our religion settled in this colony.

" 3. That he hath endeavored to spread sundry heretical opinions, and that under expressions which hold forth some degree of blasphemy, and to corrupt the minds of people therein.

"4. That he hath endeavored to vilify or nullify the just author-ity of the magistracy and government here settled.

" 5. That in all these miscarriages he hath endeavored to disturb the peace of this jurisdiction."

The sentence was, in the excess of punishment which it ordered, worthy of the High Commission, or of the Star-Chamber. It discovers in the court a hatred of the prisoner's opinions, which is but thinly covered by the specification of overt crimes. Norton was fined, whipped, branded, and banished.

At the session of the colonial court next following, the proceedings against Norton having been approved, laws were enacted against " a cursed sect lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers," imposing fines on any who should bring them into the colony, or harbor them ; requiring Quakers coming in about " their civil, lawful occasions," upon their first arrival, to appear before the authority of the place, and from them have license to pass about and issue their lawful occasions ; and providing penalties if they attempt to seduce others, if they revile or reproach, or any other way make disturbance or offend. If a Quaker having fallen under these penalties, and having been sent out of the jurisdiction, should presume to return, penalties increasing in severity are provided for the second, the third, and the fourth offence. Penalties are also provided for bringing into the jurisdiction Quaker books, and for circulating or concealing them.

236 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. The cruelty of laws whose penalties culminated in "tongues bored through with a hot iron" must be revolting, even to those who justify the fathers of the New Haven Colony in intrusting with political power only such as were of the "religion settled in this colony." But such penalties were not peculiar to New , Haven or to New England. In England, two years earlier, a Quaker by the name of James Naylor had been bored through the tongue, and otherwise tormented. So that, however true it may be that " emigration tends to barbarism," the severest punishment with which Quakers were threatened by the people of New Haven was not invented on this side of the Atlantic.

Either these laws were very effective in deterring persons of the troublesome and hated sect from remaining within the jurisdiction, or there was little occasion for the terror which led to their enactment. Only three instances are found, subsequent to the enactment of the laws against Quakers, in which action is taken against persons thus denominated. The first occurred a few days after the laws were enacted, and resulted in a fine imposed upon an inhabitant of Greenwich for the miscarriages of himself and his wife in the use of the tongue against elders and magistrates. In the second, a seaman was sent on board his vessel lying in the harbor of New Haven; and the master was required to keep him on board till he should carry him out of the jurisdiction. The third concerned a Quaker brought over from Southold : it was ordered that the offender " be whipped, and that he be bound in a bond of fifty pounds for his good behavior for the

RELIGION AND MORALS. 237 time to come, to carry it in a comely and inoffensive manner."

Besides Baptists and Quakers, there were no sectaries in the colony of New Haven till after its absorption into Connecticut. Thirteen years after the union, the Lords of the Privy Council, through their commissioners for trade and foreign plantations, sent out a schedule of questions concerning the condition of Connecticut. The twenty-sixth inquiry was as follows: viz., "What persuasion in religious matters is most prevalent ? and among the varieties, which you are to express, what proportion in number and quality of people [does] one hold to the other?" To this question Gov. Leete replied one year later, "Our people in this colony are, some of them, strict Congregational men, others more large Congregational men, and some moderate Presbyterians. The Congregational men of both sorts are the greatest part of the people in the colony. There are four or five Seventh-day men, and about so many more Quakers." The "moderate Presbyterians " to whom the governor alludes were a party in the church at Hartford, including Mr. Stone, the pastor, who maintained that Congregationalism was " a speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent democracy." He, and those who agreed with him in thus magnifying the authority of the elders, were naturally called Presbyterians by those who magnified the rights of the brotherhood; * but there was no outward separation of them from "Congregational men," either "strict" or "large ;" and they did not call themselves

1 Gov. Leete was a member of the church in Guilford, which from its beginning would never have a ruling elder.

238 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. Presbyterians, but claimed that theirs was genuine Congregationalism. The condition of the united colony fourteen years after the union being such as Gov. Leete represents, we may conclude that in the colony of New Haven, previous to the union, there was to all intents and purposes entire ecclesiastical uniformity.

As another inquiry of the commissioners "related to religion, we may as well record the reply of Gov. Leete. Though covering the whole territory of Connecticut, it throws light on the religious condition of that portion of it which a few years before had been the jurisdiction of New Haven. The twenty-seventh inquiry was : " What course is taken for the instructing of the people in the Christian religion ? How many churches and ministers are there within your government, and how many are yet wanting for the accommodation of your corporation ?" The reply was, " (I) Great care is taken for the instruction of the people in the Christian religion, by ministers catechising of them, and preaching to them twice every sabbath day, and sometimes lecture days; and so by masters of families instructing or catechising their children and servants, being so required to do by law: (2) In our corporation are twenty-six towns, and there are one and twenty churches in them. (3) There is, in every town in our colony, a settled minister, except it be in two towns new begun; and they are seeking out for ministers to settle amongst them."

It was held in those days, that there should be in every church, if possible, a pastor, a teacher, a ruling elder, and one or more deacons. In the church at New Haven Mr. Davenport was chosen pastor, and Robert

RELIGION AND MORALS. 239 Newman and Matthew Gilbert deacons, soon after the organization. In 1644 Rev. William Hooke was ordained teacher; and about the same time Robert Newr man, one of the deacons, was ordained ruling elder.1 "Thus," says Dr. Bacon, "the church became completely supplied with the officers which every church in that da$ was supposed to need. It had within itself a complete presbytery, - a full body of ordained elders, competent to maintain a regular succession, without any dependence on the supposed ordaining power of ministers out of the church, and without any necessity of resorting to the extraordinary measure of ordination by persons specially delegated for that purpose. The three elders - one of whom was to give attention chiefly to the administration of the order and government of the church, while the others were to labor in word and doctrine - were all equally and in the same sense 'elders,' or 'overseers,' of the flock of God. The one was a mere elder; but the others were elders called to the work of preaching. The distinction between pastor and teacher was theoretical, rather than of any practical importance. Both were in the highest sense ministers of the gospel; as colleagues they preached by turns on the Lord's Day, and on all other public occasions ; they had an equal share in the administration

1 Robert Newman returned to England, and no one was appointed to succeed him as ruling elder. Mr. Hooke also returned to the mother country, and was succeeded by Rev. Nicholas Street. Mr. Street was born in Taunton, England, was educated at Oxford University, and had been teacher of the church in Taunton in the colony of Plymouth. He was installed at New Haven, according to the church record, Nov. 26, or, as Davenport writes in a letter to John Winthrop, jun. (Mass. Hist ColL XXXVII., 507), Nov. 23, 1659.

240 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. of discipline; and if Mr. Davenport was more venerated than Mr. Hooke, and had more influence in the church and in the community generally, it was more because of the acknowledged personal superiority of the former in respect to age and gifts and learning, than because of any official disparity. The Cambridge platform, which was framed in 1648, and with which Mr. Davenport, in his writings on church government, fully agrees, says, in defining the difference between pastors and teachers, 'The pastor's special work is to attend to exhortation, and therein to administer a word of wisdom ; the teacher is to attend to doctrine, and therein to administer a word of knowledge ; and either of them to administer the seals of that covenant, unto the dispensation of which they are alike called; as also to execute the censures, being but a kind of application of the Word: the preaching of which, together with the application thereof, they are alike charged withal.' The pastor and teacher gave themselves wholly to their ministry and their studies, and accordingly received a support from the people : they might properly be called clergymen, The ruling elder was not necessarily educated for the ministry: he might without impropriety pursue some secular calling; and, though he fed the flock occasionally with ' a word of admonition,' the ministry was not his profession. Inasmuch as he did not live by the ministry, he was a layman."

But there was perhaps no other church in the colony provided with a presbytery complete according to the Cambridge platform, than that of New Haven. The church at Guilford had for its pastor Rev. Henry Whit-field, under whose guidance most of the people had

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crossed the ocean ; and for its teacherRev. John Hig-ginson, a son-in-law of its pastor. But, to borrow the the language of one of its later pastors, " they never had, and upon principle never would admit, a ruling elder. Although in all other things Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Davenport and their churches exactly agreed, yet in this they were quite different. I have made diligent inquiry into the subject, many years ago, with old people who were personally Acquainted with the first members of the church. They all invariably agree, that as Mr. Whitfield wa& never ordained in any sense at Guilford, but officiated as their pastor by virtue of his ordination in England, so neither he nor the church would allow of a ruling elder ; and the ancient tradition in the church here was, that New Haven, and afterward other churches in the colony, conformed their judgment and practice to Mr. Whitfield's and his church's judgment." ' After the return of Mr. Whitfield to England, Mr. Higginson was both pastor and teacher, until 1659, when he removed to Salem. At Milford Mr. Prudden was the only preaching elder, Rev. John Sherman, a resident of the town, having declined the office of teacher to which the church had elected him; but Zachariah Whitman, as ruling elder, was associated with Mr. Prudden in the care of the church. Mr. Prudden, dying in 1656, was succeeded, after an interim of four years, by Rev. Roger Newton, who, like his predecessor, was the only preaching elder. No records of the church at South old of an earlier date than 1745 being extant, we cannot ascertain whether it had a ruling elder; but there is no

1 Letter of Rev. Thomas Ruggles, author of a History of Guilford, to Rev. Dr. Stiles ; printed in Mass. Hist. Coll., X. 91.

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reason to doubt that Mr. Youngs was its only preaching officer. At Stamford Rev. John Bishop was both pastor and teacher; as was Rev. Abraham Pierson at Bran-ford, when, with the approbation of the Jurisdiction Court, a settlement had been made, and a church had been gathered, in that place.

The preaching elders were maintained from the treasury of the church, and not of the town, the treas- -ury being supplied by contribution's made every Lord's Day; but these contributions were, if not from the beginning, certainly very soon after the beginning, made in accordance with a pledge which every inhabitant was required to give, that he would contribute a certain amount yearly for the maintenance of the ministry. The law respecting such pledges reads as follows : -

" It is ordered, that when and so oft as there shall be cause, either through the perverseness or negligence of men, the particular court in each plantation, or, where no court is held, the deputies last chosen for the General Court, with the constable, or other officer for preserving peace, and so forth, shall call all the inhabitants, whether planters or sojourners, before them, and desire every one particularly to set down what proportion he is willing and able to allow yearly, while God continues his estate, toward the maintenance of the ministry there. But if any one or more, to the discouragement or hinderance of this work, refuse or delay, or set down an unmeet proportion; in any and every such case, the par-, ticular court, or deputies and constable as aforesaid, shall rate and assess every such person, according to his visible estate there, with due moderation and in equal proportion with his neighbors. But if after that he deny or delay, or tender unsuitable payment, it shall be recovered as other just debts. And it is further ordered, Tha< if any man remove from the plantation where he lived, and leave or suffer his land there, or any part of it, to lie unimproved, neither selling it, nor freely surrendering it to the plantation, he shall pay

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one third part of what he paid before for his movable estate and lands also. And in each plantation where ministers' maintenance is allowed in a free way without rating, he shall pay one third part of what other men of the lowest rank enjoying such accommodations, do pay; but if any removing, settle near the said plantation, and continue still to improve his land, or such part of it as seems good to himself, he shall pay two-thirds of what he paid before when he lived in the plantation, both for movable estate and land, or two-thirds-part of whA others of like accommodation pay."

There is, perhaps, an intimation in the law, that the amount which each inhabitant should pay for the maintenance of the elders was determined, in some of the plantations, by assessors and not by himself. Practically, there could not be much difference in the two methods, since, if the " free way without rating " was practised, the order of the court obliged non-resident proprietors and unwilling residents to pay according to their taxable estates.

The general synod at Cambridge, which in 1648 prepared, agreed to, and published the system of ecclesiastical polity known as the Cambridge platform, included representatives of the churches hi the colony of New Haven ; and this platform fairly represents the Congregationalism of these churches from their organization to the formation of the Saybrook platform in the early part of the eighteenth century. The same synod took action on the confession of faith published by the Westminster Assembly of divines, as follows : -

" This synod, having perused and considered, with much gladness of heart and thankfulness to God, the confession of faith published of late by the reverend assembly in England, do judge it to be very holy, orthodox, and judicious in all matters of faith;

244 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. and do therefore freely and fully consent thereunto, for the substance thereof. Only in those things which have respect to church government and discipline, we refer ourselves to the platform of church discipline agreed upon by this present assembly."

The Presbyterian party being at that time in the ascendant in England, the synod adopted the Westminster Confession, instead of framing one for themselves, for the sake of vindicating in the mother country the orthodoxy of New England Congregationalists. They say in their preface : -

"We, who are, by nature Englishmen, do desire to hold forth the same doctrine of religion, especially in fundamentals, which we see and know to be held by the churches of England." " By this our professed consent and free concurrence with them in all the doctrinals of religion, we hope it may appear to the world, that, as we are a remnant of the people of the same nation with them, so we are professors of the same common faith, and fellow-heirs of the same common salvation."

If the Church of England had been at that time Episcopal, the Cambridge Synod would with equal willingness have adopted the doctrinal part of the Thirty-Nine Articles. These articles they heartily received, according to the interpretation generally given to them in the reign of Elizabeth, in the first part of the reign of James I., and by the Calvinistic party in the Church of England subsequently. The pastors and teachers of the churches in the New Haven colony retained the Calvinistic theology in which they had been indoctrinated in the universities, and believed, as did their teachers, that it was consistent with and embodied in the Thirty-Nine Articles. After the restoration of the Thirty-Nine Articles in the national church of England,

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the churches of Connecticut publicly agreed with the dissenters in the mother country, in adopting them as a standard of orthodoxy. The Heads of Agreement which accompany the Saybrook platform say, "As to what appertains to soundness of judgment in matters of faith, we esteem it sufficient that a church acknowledge the Scriptures to be the word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practice, and own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the articles of the Church of England, or the confession, or catechisms, shorter or longer, compiled by the assembly at Westminster, or the confession agreed on at the Savoy, to be agreeable to the said rule." This declaration, though made after the first generation had passed away, would have been uttered by the fathers as willingly as by their children, if justified by an appropriate occasion.

In each plantation there was a building in which the church assembled for worship. It was built and owned by the proprietors of the plantation, and was used for meetings of the General Court as well as of the church. Having this double design, it was not called a church or a church-house, as an edifice used only for church services would naturally be denominated, but a meetinghouse. This twofold use of the edifice did not offend the religious sentiment of the people; for the court was composed of church-members who came together in a religious spirit to serve God in the business of the court as truly as they served him in the ordinances of the church. It was not a temporary expedient such as a people believing in a more thorough separation of

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Church and State might adopt in a new plantation till they were able to provide more appropriately for each; but it was in its design a permanent arrangement befitting a theocratic constitution of society. The meeting-houses in the several plantations differed

A MEETING-HOUSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. in size, but were similar in external appearance and internal arrangement. The meeting-house at Guilford was, however, of stone, as were a few of the principal dwellings in that plantation. That at Milford was of wood, was forty feet square, and had a roof in shape

RELIGION AND MORALS. 247 like a truncated pyramid, surmounted by a "tower." That at New Haven was of wood, was fifty feet square, and had a roof like that of the Milford house, and a "tower an.d turret." There were also "banisters and rails on the meeting-house top," which probably en closed that higher and flatter portion of the roof from which the tower ascended. It was built in accordance with an order of the General Court, passed Nov. 2-5, 1639. The estimated cost was .£500; and, as the last instalment of the tax levied to raise that sum was made payable in the following May, one may infer that the expectation was that it would be finished within a year. It stood in the market-place, certainly near its centre, and presumably exactly upon it.1 The frame being insufficient to support the weight of the tower and turret, it became necessary to shore up the posts. In time it was found that the shores were impaired by decay, and fears were expressed that the house would fall. In January, 1660, there was a discussion at a general court concerning the meeting-house. Some were in favor of taking down both the tower and the turret. Some were for removing the turret, and allowing the tower to remain. Some thought that both tower and turret might be retained, if the shores

* See in Mass. Hist Coll. XL., p. 474, a curious essay on the laying out of towns. The author is unknown, and it is without address or date. It seems to have been written before the settlement of New Haven, but lays down the same principles as ruled in laying out New Haven. The meeting-house is to be "the centre of the whole circumference." The houses are to be orderly placed about it. Then there is to be a first dwis-ion of lands extending from the centre one-half the distance to the outside boundary, to be improved in the earlier years of the settlement, before the second division comes into use.

248 HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. were renewed, and the frame were strengthened with braces within the house. In conclusion, it was "determined, that, besides the renewing of the shores, both turret and tower shall be taken down." Probably the order to take down the tower and turret was not executed, for a committee on the meeting-house reported, Aug. 11, 1662, that "they thought it good that the upper turret be taken down. The thing being debated, it was put to vote, and concluded to be done, and left to the townsmen to see to get it done."

The internal .arrangement of a meeting-house is shown in the accompanying plan. Behind the pulpit was the seat of the teaching elders; immediately in front of it was the seat of the ruling elder; and before the seat of the ruling elder was the seat of the deacons, having a shelf in front of it, which ordinarily hung suspended from hinges, so as to present its broad surface to the congregation, but, when needed for a communion-table, was elevated to a horizontal position. The report of the committee for seating people in the meeting-house at New Haven, in 1656, shows that the deacons were expected to sit one at each end of their official seat, and that each of them had his own place, - four men being appointed to sit before Deacon Gilbert's seat, and three women before Deacon Miles's seat. In every such meeting-house the sexes were seated apart, the men on one side, and the women on the other side, of the middle "alley." The soldiers' seats were, however, an exception to the rule, one-half of them being on the women's side of the house. In the meeting-house at New Haven the " forms " between the " alleys " were long enough to accommodate seven per-

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sons, but only two or three were assigned to those near the pulpit, the space allowed to each person having some proportion to his dignity. At "the upper end" were five cross-seats and " one little seat." The seating of 1656 assigns two men to "the bench before the-little seat," and, on the opposite side of the house, two women to "the seat before the little seat." In like manner persons were assigned to sit in front of every

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front seat in the house. The first seating which is recorded placed only proprietors and their wives. The second was more liberal, including apparently all heads of families, but, with the exception of " Mr. Goodyear's daughters," no unmarried women. This more liberal policy in the assignment of seats rendered it necessary to place benches in the "alleys," before every front seat. In the meeting-house at New Haven there were two pillars, one on that part where the men were seated, and one on the women's side. Apparently they were designed to aid in supporting the weight of the tower and turret. On the accompanying ground-plan they are represented as placed in the side "alleys," half way from front to rear.

In January, 1647, "it was ordered that the particular ctfurt with the two deacons, taking in the advice of the ruling elder, should place people in the meeting-house, and it was also ordered that the governor may be spared therein." ' At a general court held the tenth of March, this committee having meanwhile performed their duty, " the names of people, as they were seated in the meeting-house, were read in court, and it was ordered they should be recorded." In 1656, nine years later, another record was made, and in 1662 a third record of the names of people as they were seated in the meeting-

1 The governor may have been spared, because, his wife being now excommunicate, no seat could be assigned to her by name. It will be seen, however, that there was plenty of room for her in the seat with . " old Mrs. Eaton." Nine years later, the governor's mother being now dead, the seat was assigned to his wife under the adroit circumlocution, " The first as it was," but the committee's faculty of circumlocution failed when they came to the bench in front of that seat, and they wrote, " Before Mrs. Baton's seat."

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house. As a comparison of these records may assist the reader to note the increase of the congregation and the change in its personnel, we have transcribed them to be printed in Appendix IV. At the town meeting at which the second list of names was read, " it was agreed that (because there want seats for some, and that the alleys are so filled with blocks, stools, and chairs, that it hinders a free passage) low benches shall be made at the end of the seats on both sides of the alleys, for young persons to sit on." But these • additional seats did not suffice, for about twelve months later the townsmen, or, .as we now term them, the selectmen, were " desired to speak with some workmen to see if another little gallery may not for a small charge be made adjoining that [which] is already." This mention of the gallery prompts us to suggest, that, as with few exceptions the persons who had seats assigned to them by name were heads of families, young men and young women sat in the gallery, as was the general custom in New England in later generations. That the interior of the building was cared for and kept free from dust, is evident from the minute, "It is ordered that sister Preston shall sweep and dress the meeting-house every week, and have one shilling a week for her pains."

The people of each plantation gathered together on the morning of every Lord's day to a sanctuary not unlike that which has been described. The first drum was beaten about eight o'clock in the tower of the meeting-house and through the streets of the town. When the second drum beat, families came forth from their dwellings, and walked in orderly procession to the

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house of God, children following their parents to the door, though not allowed to sit with them in the assembly. The ministers in the pulpit wore gowns and bands as they had done in England, their Puritan scruples reaching not to all the badges of official distinction which they had been accustomed to see and to use, but only to the surplice.

There is, perhaps, no way in which one can more accurately conceive of -the ritual of worship in these churches than by reading what has been written by a contemporary, concerning worship in New England and especially in Boston. LechfordJ says : -

" The public worship is in as fair a meeting-house as they can provide, wherein, in most places they have been at great charges. Every Sabbath or Lord's day they come together at Boston by ringing of a bell, about nine of the clock or before. The pastor begins with solemn prayer, continuing about a quarter of an hour. The teacher* then readeth and expoundeth a chapter. Then a psalm is: sung; whichever, one of the ruling elders dictates. After that, the pastor preacheth a sermon, and sometimes ex tempore exhorts. Then the teacher concludes with prayer and a blessing.

" Once a month is a sacrament of the Lord's Supper, whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then all others departing save the church, which is a great deal less in number than those that go away, they receive the sacrament, the ministers and ruling elders sitting at the table, the rest in their seats or upon forms. All cannot see the minister consecrating unless they stand up and make a narrow shift. The one of the teaching elders prays before, and blesseth and consecrates the bread and wine, according to the words of institution -^ the other prays after the receiving of all the members; and next communion they change turns; he that

1 Lechford was a lawyer, who, being disbarred for talking with a juryman out of court, returned to England.

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began at that ends at this; and the ministers deliver the bread in a charger to some of the chief, and peradventure give to a few the bread into their hands, and they deliver the charger from one to another, till all have eaten; in like manner the cup, till all have drunk, goes from one to another. Then a psalm is sung, and with a short blessing the congregation is dismissed. Any one, though not of the church, may, in Boston, come in and see the sacrament administered if he will; but none of any church in the country may receive the sacrament there without leave of the congregation, for which purpose he comes to one of the ruling elders, who propounds his name to the congregation before they go to the sacrament.

" About two in the afternoon they repair to the meeting-house again; and then the pastor begins as before noon, and, a psalm being sung, the teacher makes a sermon. He was wont, when I came first, to read and expound a chapter also before his sermon in the afternoon. After and before his sermon he prayeth.

" After that ensues baptism, if there be any; which is done by either pastor or teacher, in the deacon's seat, the most eminent place in the church, next under the elders' seat. The pastor most commonly makes a speech or exhortation to the church and parents concerning baptism, and then prayeth before and after. It is done by washing or sprinkling. One of the parents being of the church, the child may be baptized, and the baptism is into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. No sureties are required. '

lfWhich ended, follows the contribution, one of the deacons saying, ' Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for contribution, wherefore, as God hath prospered you, so freely offer.' Upon some extraordinary occasions, as building or repairing of churches or meeting-houses, or other necessities, the ministers press a liberal contribution, with effectual exhortations out of Scripture. The magistrates and chief gentlemen first, and then the elders and all the congregation of men, and most of them that are not of'the church, all single persons, widows and women in absence of their husbands,1 come up one after another one way,

1 Mrs. Brewster, in the absence of her husband, who had sailed for England in Lamberton's ship, went forward with her gift " because her

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and bring their offerings to the deacon at his seat, and put it into a box of wood for the purpose, if it be money or papers; if it be any other chattel, they set it or lay it down before the deacons, and so pass another way to their seats again."

The sermons were much longer than would be endured at the present day; but were not regarded by the hearers as too long, such was the interest which the people felt in the exposition of the Scriptures, and so little else was there to occupy their intellectual and spiritual faculties. Long sermons, however, were not a peculiarity of New England. The churches in the mother-country were commonly supplied with hourglasses, one hour being the ordinary measure of a sermon ; but when an able preacher turned the glass to signify that he wished to speak longer, the congregation would give visible, if not audible, expression of their approval.

After the contribution, candidates were "propounded" for admission to the church, or, having been previously announced as candidates, were, on their assenting to the - covenant of the church, formally received into its communion. If there were any matters of offence requiring censure, they were-then attended to, "sometimes till it be very late," "If they have time after this, is sung a psalm, and then the pastor concludeth with a prayer and a blessing."

In the church at New Haven it was, the custom for

husband had commanded her," but was charged with saying, " It was as going to mass or going up to the high altar." She denied " that ever she spake of mass or high altar in reference to the contributions," but adroitly quoted the text, " when thou bringest thy gift to the altar," alleging that she first heard it applied to the contributions by her irreproachable seat-mate, Mrs. Lamberton.

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the assembly to rise and stand while the preacher read the passage of Scripture which he had selected as a text for his sermon. But Hutchinson says that this was a peculiarity of that church, and quotes a letter from Hooker to Shepard, referring to the Sunday when the practice commenced in the afternoon, Mr. Davenport having preached a sermon in the morning advocating such an expression of reverence for the word of God.

Stated religious services in addition to those of the Lord's Day were held on other days of the week, the arrangement of them differing probably in the several plantations. In New Haven the church had a meeting by themselves on Tuesday, or "third day," as their scruples required them, at least for a time, to term the third day of the week. On Thursday, or "fifth day," there was a public lecture open to all.1 Allusion is also made in the records to neighborhood-meetings, not only during the year preceding the formation of a church and a government, but so late as May, 1661.

"A plantation whose design is religion " ought to be distinguished for morality. Such being the design of all the plantations combined in the colony of New Haven, we naturally expect to find it standing higher than midway in a list of Christian communities arranged according to their respective degrees of ethical purity. All the proprietors were, or desired to become, church-

1 I am not sure that either the church-meeting or the lecture-service was held every week. The lecture probably occurred regularly, whatever the interval; the church-meeting may have been appointed by the elders whenever there was occasion. I think, however, that church-meetings were always on third day, and lectures always on fifth day.

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members, and all had evinced the sincerity of their re ligious professions by coming into the wilderness for the sake of their religion. Such men were personally moral, and, so far as they could control their children, their servants, and the strangers who sojourned among them, they preserved their community free from vice. It is true that the records supply evidence that the moral law was sometimes transgressed. Indeed, if one should judge solely from the number of cases brought to trial, he might come to the conclusion that there was a low state of morals in the colony. But a community governed by Puritans differed from other communities, both in the comprehensiveness of the moral code enforced by the civil law, and in the strictness with which laws enacted in the interest of morality were enforced. Probably mere cases were brought before the court, in proportion to the number of crimes committed, than in any community of the present day. In our time the civil law aims to protect society from the destructive power of immorality, and this is the limit of its endeavor in behalf of morality. . If th"re be any laws on the statute-book designed to protect an individual from himself, or to enforce the duties which man owes to God, such laws are ancient, and, for want of enforcement, are practically obsolete.

The whole duty of a man comprises his duties to himself, his duties to his fellow-beings, and his duties to God. Puritan law enforced the obligations of the first and third, as well as of the second division. Drunkenness and unchastity were trespasses which the offender committed against himself, - trespasses from which the innocent were to be deterred by penalties

RELIGION AND MORALS. threatened, and, whenever there was transgression, by penalties inflicted. Blasphemy was an outrage upon the being spoken against, and wilful absence from public worship was to rob God of the outward honor rightfully belonging to him: there were therefore laws to protect the rights of God by punishing such impiety.

The field in which ethical purity was enforced by law, being considerably wider than in modern times, the moral sentiment of society being high-toned, and magistrates being conscientiously diligent in maintaining law, there were more criminal prosecutions than would occur under modern laws and modern administration in a community equally virtuous and of equal population. Allowing for the breadth of the Puritan code of morals, and the conscientiousness with which law was enforced, one must conclude that the people of the New Haven colony were more moral than the people inhabiting the same territory have been during any equal period in modern times. Antecedent to the union with Connecticut, there was no trial of an English person for murder. There is incidental evidence that there was one trial for adultery, though the record of it is lost. There were executions for crimes of unnatural lust, but the imperfection of the records renders it impossible to determine how many. Trials for fornication, drunkenness, and theft were not as numerous in proportion to the population as on the same territory in our own time.

Generally, offenders were either servants or artisans temporarily resident. But in a comparatively few cases the children of proprietors so far deviated from the strictly moral life required by Puritan law, as to be sum-

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moned before the magistrates. When this happened, it usually appeared that they had been misled by serv- ants, bond or hired. One such case illustrates the firm ness and impartiality with which law was administered. The daughter of a magistrate was, by order of the court of magistrates, whipped for "consenting to go in the night to the farms with Will. Harding to a venison feast; for stealing things from her parents; and yielding to filthy dalliance with the said Harding." Neither her father who was a member of the court, nor her father's "cousin" who presided, however they may have shrunk and faltered, refused to administer the same measure as they would have administered to the humblest appren tice.

Passing out of the zone in which morality was protected by civil law, into the region where conscience and public sentiment ruled, we find the colonists superior rather than inferior to their descendants and successors. In the sobriety which governs animal appetites; in the observance of the rules of righteousness between man and man; in the carefulness with which honor was given to those to whom honor was due, and especially to the Supreme Ruler,-they excelled.

Having said so much in commendation, we must in truthfulness testify, that, like the saints whose sins are recorded on the pages of Holy Writ, they were human and therefore imperfect. Even among church-members there were cases of gross immorality. In a single church there was one case of lying, one of fraud, one of drunkenness, and one of unnatural lust. These exceptional outbreaks of wickedness are conspicuous by reason of the general sobriety, righteousness, and godliness of the community in which they occurred.

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If there was any sin to which Puritans were especially liable, it was avarice. Watchful against carnality and ungodliness, they were less suspicious of that lust of acquiring, which under the guise of such virtues as industry, frugality, and domestic affection, sometimes held them in a bondage of which they were little aware. Hence there were frequent appeals to the court for justice between man and man in regard to contracts, and in one instance a complaint from the deacons of the church in" the principal plantation that " the wampum that is put into the church-treasury is generally so bad that the elders to whom they pay it cannot pay it away." The court, appointing a committee to inquire further concerning the matter, found that "the contributions for the church-treasury are by degrees so much abated that they afford not any considerable maintenance to the teaching officers, and that much of the wampum brought in is such, and so faulty, that the officers can hardly, or not at all, pass it away in any of their occasions." Those-who abated their contributions too much, or cast into the treasury of the church worthless money, were certainly wrong; but perhaps those who in our day are accustomed to receive and count the contributions of churches, could testify that such manifestations of avarice are not peculiar to ancient times.

The outward honor shown to those who were worthy of honor was in the seventeenth century rendered as being of moral obligation. Good morals included good manners, and good manners were so far forth good morals. The Puritan gave to the fifth commandment so broad a scope that it required outward expressions of reverence for all superiors in age or station. It would

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be impossible now to re-establish the manners of the seventeenth century, or to convince any considerable part of society that the young owe to their superiors in age any such degree of deference as was then acknowledged to be due. But even to one who believes that outward signs of reverence were then excessive, there may perhaps be more of fitness and beauty in the manners of the olden time, notwithstanding such excess, than in the opposite extreme sometimes exhibited in modern society. Certainly, as reverence for superiors was then universally held to be of moral obligation, the people of New Haven colony are to be credited for the general rendition of honor to whom honor is due.

CHAPTER XIII.

LEARNING.

PROTESTANT Christianity places so much empha-sis on individual accountability to God that consistency requires a Protestant community to provide that every person shall be able to read, in order that he may read the Scriptures. The Puritan fathers of New England established schools as early as, or earlier than, they organized churches, and with direct reference to religious instruction as the ultimate end. Under the caption " Children's Education," the New Haven law reads as follows: -

" Whereas too many parents and masters, either through an over tender respect to their own occasions and business, or not duly considering the good of their children and apprentices, have too much neglected duty in their education while they are young and capable of learning, It is Ordered, That the deputies for the particular court in each plantation within this jurisdiction for the time being, or where there are no such deputies, the constable or other officer or officers in public trust, shall, from time to time, have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors within the limits of the said plantation; that all parents and masters do duly endeavor, either by their own ability and labor, or by improving such school-master or other help and means as the plantation doth afford or the family may conveniently provide, that all their children and apprentices, as they grow capable, may, through God's blessing, attain at least so much as to be able duly to read the Scriptures

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and other good and profitable printed books in the English tongue, being their native language; and, in some competent measure, to understand the main grounds and principles of Christian religion necessary to salvation."

The statute then proceeds to provide for its enforcement, imposing fine after fine, and finally authorizing the court of magistrates if " such children or servants may be in danger to grow barbarous, rude, and stubborn," to "take such children or apprentices from such parents or masters, and place them for years, boys till they come to the age of one and twenty, and girls till they come to the age of eighteen years, with such others who shall better educate and govern them, both for public conveniency and for the particular good of the said children or apprentices." We learn from the statute that the end for which schools were instituted was that children might not grow " barbarous, rude, and stubborn." From the history of the schools we shall further find that the planters had in view not only to secure the colony from the existence of a dangerous class, but to qualify some of their youth to be leaders of the people in the following generation. The first planters of the earliest plantation in the colony brought With them a school-master. A few months after the arrival of the company at Quinnipiac, and apparently as soon as a room for the school could be provided, he commenced to teach. Michael Wiggles-worth, who was his pupil in the summer of 1639, says, " I was sent to school to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, who at that time taught school in his own house; and under him, in a year or two I profited so much, through the 263

blessing of God, that I began to make Latin, and to get on apace." The revision of the town records sanctioned by the General Court, after the unfaithfulness of Secretary Fugill had been discovered, gives the following minute concerning Mr. Cheever's school: -

" For the better training up of youth in this town, that through God's blessing they may be fitted for public service hereafter, either in church or commonweal, it is ordered that a free school be set up, and the magistrates with the teaching elders are entreated to consider what rules and orders are meet to be observed, and what allowance may be convenient for-the school-master's care and pains, which shall be paid out of the town's stock. According to which order £20 a year was paid to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, the present school-master, for two or three years at first; but that not proving a competent maintenance, in August, 1644, it was enlarged to ^30 a year, and so continueth."

After Mr. Cheever's difficulty with the church it was uncomfortable for him to reside in New Haven, and he soon removed to Ipswich. In October, 1650, "it was propounded that a school-master be provided for the town," and the matter was referred to a committee; but some time elapsed before a school-master was found whom the town was willing to reward with so large a salary as' they had paid to Mr. Cheever. Mr. Jeanes, one of the proprietors of the town, was willing to teach, and, in March, 1651, "it was propounded to know whether the town would allow any salary to Mr. Jeanes for teaching school.1 Much debate was about it, but

1 William Jeanes, whose house was at the corner of Chapel and Church Streets. I have seen it stated that Rev. Thomas James, who lived at the corner of Chapel and York Streets, taught school in New Haven; but after diligent search I conclude that this is a mistake occasioned by the similarity of his name to that of Jeanes.

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nothing was ordered in it at present; only it was propounded to him, that if the town would allow him £10 a year, whether he would not go on to teach and take the rest of the parents of the children by the quarter; but he returned no answer." On further reflection Mr. Jeanes concluded to accept the town's offer, so that in May the town "ordered that he should have £10 for this year." In October " Mr. Jeanes informed the town that he is offered a considerable maintenance to go to Wethersfield to teach school, yet if the town will settle that £10 a year upon him formerly ordered, he is willing to stay here in the work he is. Whereupon it was voted that for three years he have £10 a year as formerly ordered, and upon the same terms as before." For some reason Mr. Jeanes did not continue to teach for so long a period as the town had engaged itself to him ; for, in October, 1651 : -

" The secretary was desired to speak with Mr. Goodyear to use some means to bring the school-master hither, who, they hear, is coming,, but wants transportation; and, about a fortnight later, " the governor acquainted the court that now the school-master is come, and some course must be taken to provide for his lodging and diet; and to repair the school-house; and consider what the town will allow him a year; and what his work shall be; therefore it is necessary a committee should be chosen to treat with him. The court considered of the motion, and chose the ruling elder, the four deputies, and the treasurer, as a committee to treat with him and provide for him; and declared that they .are willing to allow him Lb30 a year out of the treasury, or any greater sum as they can agree, not exceeding Lb40 that his work should be to perfect male children in the English after they can read in their Testament or Bible, and to learn them to write, and to bring them on to Latin as they are capable, and desire to proceed therein."

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Three days later -

" The committee appointed at the last court to treat and agree with the school-master, acquainted the court with what they had done; viz., that he propounded to have £20 a year, and the town to pay for his chamber and diet (which they have agreed with Mr. Atwater for, for five shillings per week); that the town pay toward his charges in coming hither thirty shillings; that he have liberty once a year to go to see his friends, which we propounded to be in harvest time; that his pay be good, and some of it such as wherewith he> may buy books and defray charges in his travel; that if he be called away (not to the same work, but to some other employment which may be for the honor of Christ) he may have liberty. And for this he will teach the children of this town (having the benefit of strangers to himself) after they are entered and can read in the Testament; to perfect them in English 5 and teach them their Latin tongue as they are capable; and to write. After consideration the town voted to accept the terms propounded."

The school-master thus provided was John Hanford, afterward settled in the ministry at Norwalk. When he had taught about four months : -

" The governor acquainted the court that he hears the schoolmaster is somewhat discouraged, because he hath so many English scholars which he must learn to spell, which was never the town's mind, as appeared in the order which was now read. And it was now ordered that the school-master shall send back such scholars as he sees do not answer the first agreement with him, and the parents of such children were desired not to send them."

Seven months after Mr. Hanford had commenced his school:-

"The governor informed the court that one of Norwalk had been with him to desire liberty for Mr. Hanford's remove to be helpful to that plantation in the work of the ministry: also Mr. Hanford himself, who saith he finds his body unable, and that it will not stand with his health to go on in his work of teaching 266

. school, and therefore desires liberty to take his opportunity; which liberty he did reserve when he agreed with the town; the record of which agreement being read, it so appeared. Therefore, if his mind was so set, they could not hinder him; but a convenient time of warning was desired, which he granted, if it was a month or two."

On the same day when the aforesaid action was taken, releasing Mr. Hanford, " brother Davis's son was propounded to supply the school-master's place, and the magistrates, elders, and deacons, with the deputies for the court, were chbsen as a committee to treat with him about it." It is probable, however, that Mr. Davis was not employed; for the governor informed the court, Nov. 8, 1652: -

" That the cause of calling this meeting is about a school-master, to let them know what he hath done in it. He hath written a letter to one Mr. Bowers, who is school-master at Plymouth, and desires to come into" these parts to live, and another letter about one Mr. Rowlandson, a scholar, who, he hears, will take that employment upon him. How they will succeed, he knows not; but now Mr. Jeanes is come to the town, and is willing to come hither again if he may have encouragement. What course had been taken to' get one he was acquainted with, and that, if either of them come, he must be entertained; but he said, if another come, he -should be willing, to teach boys and girls to read and write, if the town thought fit; and Mr. Jeanes being now present, confirmed it. The town generally was willing to encourage Mr. Jeanes's coming, and would allow him at least ten pounds a year out of the treasury, and the rest he might take of the parents of the children he teacheth, by the quarter, as he did before, to make it up a comfortable maintenance. And many of the -town thought there would be need of »two school-masters, for if a Latin school-master come, it is feared he will be discouraged if many English scholars come to him. Mr. Jeanes, seeing the town's willingness for his coming again, acknowledged their love, and desired them to proceed no further

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at this time; for he was*not sure he shall get free where he is, and if he do, he doubts it will not be before winter. Therefore no more was done in it'at present."

About seven months later (June 21, 1653): -

"The governor acquainted the town that Mr. Bowers, whom they sent for to keep school, is now come, and that it hath been difficult to find a place for his abode; but now Thomas Kimberley's house is agreed upon, and he intends to begin his work next fifth day if the town please; with which the town was satisfied, and declared that they would allow him as they did Mr. Hanford,- that is, twenty pounds a year, and pay for his diet and chamber; and they expected from him that work which Mr. Hanford was to do: and some that had spoken with him, declared that upon these conditions he was content."

Mr. Bowers continued to teach the town school for about seven years. He was at first troubled, as Mr. Hanford had been, with so many " children sent to him to learn their letters and to spell, that others, for whom the school was chiefly intended, as Latin scholars," were neglected. The town, hearing of this, charged two of the selectmen (as such officers are now called, or townsmen, as they were then denominated) to send all such children home, and desired the school-master not to receive any more such. He does not appear to have been hindered in his usefulness after his first year by this or any other difficulty, till the last year of his service. He then informed the court, April 23, 1660, " that the number of scholars at present was but eighteen, and they are so unconstant that many times there are but six or eight. He desired to know the town's mind whether they would have a school or no school, for he could not satisfy himself to go on thus. The

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reason of it was inquired after, but not fully discovered. But that the school might be settled in some better way for the furtherance of learning, it was referred to the consideration of the court, elders, and townsmen, who are desired to prepare it for the next meeting of the town." At the next meeting "the governor declared that the business of the school had also been considered by the committee, but was left to be further considered when it appears what will be done by the jurisdiction general court concerning a colony school."

The institution of a colony school at New Haven, a few months later, put an end to the town school, absorb^ ing into itself all the boys in the plantation whose parents wished them to learn Latin.

The question naturally rises in the mind of one who studies in the early town records of New Haven, the history of its schools, What provision was there for children who had not yet learned to read? So far as appears, no provision was made at the public expense for children not sufficiently advanced to enter the town school; but parents were obliged either personally to teach their children, or to pay for their instruction in private schools. So early as February, 1645, "Mr. Pearce desired the plantation to take notice that if any will send their children to him, he will instruct them in writing or arithmetic." Probably other inhabitants from time to time taught the rudiments of learning as they could obtain pupils. Mr. Jeanes seems to have occupied a middle position between such teachers of private schools and the master of the public school, being regarded as less competent than those who received their

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maintenance wholly from the town, and yet worthy to be encouraged by a grant from the public treasury when a more learned man than he, was not to be obtained.

At Guilford, Rev. John Higginson added to his work as teaching elder of the church, that of school-master for the town. At a general court, Oct. 7, 1646, a committee was appointed to collect the contributions for the maintenance of the elders, and "it was ordered that the additional sum toward Mr. Higginson's maintenance with respect to the school shall be paid by the treasurer out of the best of the rates in due season according to our agreements." As it was at the same time further ordered " that whoever shall put any child to school to Mr. Higginson, shall not put for less than a quarter's time at once, and so all shall be reckoned with quarterly, though they have neglected to send them all the time, after the rate of four shillings per quarter, by the treasurer," we may infer that the school was not free to those who' sent their children, though a fixed salary was assured to the master by the town. When Mr. Higginson, after Mr. Whitfield's departure, became the only elder of the church, other persons were successively employed as school-masters. Jeremiah Peck, afterward an ordained minister, was school-master from 1656, - in which year he was married to a young lady of Guilford, - to 1660, when he removed to New Haven to take charge of the grammar school established in that year by the colony.

According to Lambert, "the first school in Milford was kept by Jasper Gunn, the physician;" and the colonial records in 1657 preface an order, that "endeavors shall be used that a school-master shall be procured in

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every plantation where a school is not already set up," with the statement that New Haven hath provided that a school-master be maintained at the town's charge, and Milford hath made provision in a comfortable way." '

These town schools were chiefly intended for such as could remain long enough "to make Latin." The teachers were men of liberal education, and were procured' to teach, because they were capable of teaching something more and higher than the rudiments of learning. In every plantation there were inhabitants who could teach children as much as the law required that they should learn, which, as we have seen, was at first only reading.

To show, that, as the colony grew in years it required a greater minimum of scholarship, we cite the addition made by the General Court in 1660 to the law requiring that all children should be taught to read. "To the printed law concerning the education of children, it is now added that the sons of all the inhabitants within this jurisdiction shall (under the same penalty) be learned to write a legible hand so soon as they are capable of it." The reader should take notice, however, that the earlier order refers to all children and apprentices, and the later to boys only. The standard to which Mr. Davenport would have brought "the people by moral suasion, if not by authority of law, was even higher than that enforced by the court; for, when he delivered

1 The omission of Guilford in this mention of towns which in May, 1657, were maintaining schools, leads me to think that Mr. Peck commenced his school in 1657 ; butI have allowed the date of his commencement to remain as it is in |ibley's Harvard Graduates. Perhaps he commenced as the master of a private school.

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up all his power and interest as a trustee of Mr. Hop-kins's bequest in aid of a college, he embraced the opportunity to express his desire "that parents will keep such of their sons constantly to learning in the schools whom they intend to train up for public serviceable-ness; and that all their sons may learn, at the least, to write and cast up accounts competently, and may make some entrance into the Latin tongue." As this communication was made at the meeting when the ordei was passed requiring that boys should be taught to write, it would seem that the freemen were moved by Mr. Davenport's communication to pass the order, but did not think it expedient to require arithmetic and Latin.

It was designed .from the beginning, that "a small college should be settled in New Haven." x In laying

1 While they looked forward to the establishment of a college at home, the people of New Haven in 1644 appointed collectors to " receive of every one in this plantation whose heart is willing thereunto, a peck of wheat or the value of it," for " the relief of poor scholars at the college at Cambridge." The amount of this contribution may be learned from the following record in 1645. " Mr. Atwater, the present treasurer, informed the court that he had sent from Connecticut forty bushels of wheat for the college, by Goodman Codman, for the last year's gift of New Haven, although he had not received so much." This contribution of college corn became an annual institation, though sometimes there was less enthusiasm than at first. In 1647 "the governor propounded that the college corn might be forthwith paid, considering that the work is a service to Christ to bring up young plants for his service, and besides it will be a reproach that it shall be said New Haven is fallen off from this service." A few weeks later "it was desired that as men had formerly engaged themselves to contribute a portion of corn to the college, that they would not now be slack in carrying it to the collectors, but that within seven or eight days at farthest those that are behind would pay, for it is a service to Christ, and may yield precious fruit to the colonies hereafter, being that

272 . out their town the freemen reserved the tract called "Oyster-shell Field" "for the use and benefit of a college," and in March, 1648, directed a committee, empowered to dispose of vacant lots " to consider and reserve what lot they shall see meet and most commo dious for a college, which they desire may be set up as soon as their, ability will reach thereunto." The subject had been brought before the General'Court for the jurisdiction, at least as early as 1652 ; for the town of Guilford voted in June of that year: -" That the matter about a college at New Haven is thoug/ht to be too great a charge for us of this jurisdiction to undergo alone, especially considering the unsettled state of New Haven town, being publicly declared from the delib erate judgment of the most understanding men to be a place of no comfortable subsistence for the present inhabitants there; but if Connecticut do join, the planters are generally willing to bear their just propor tions for erecting and maintaining a college there. However, they desire thanks to Mr. Goodyear for his proffer to the settihg forward of such a work." The records of the jurisdiction for that year having been lost, we are indebted to an allusion to this offer twelve years afterward by Mr. Davenport in some remarks in a town meeting, for the knowledge that the offer of Mr. Goodyear alluded to by the Guilford people was an offer to give his house and home-lot for the use of the college.

Notwithstanding the damper which Guilford put upon

the commissioners have taken order that none should have the benefit of it but those that shall remain in the country for the service of the same."

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the attempt to set up a college, the people of New Haven continued to hope, and about two years afterward again agitated the subject. At a general court May 22, 1654, "the town was informed that there is some motion again on foot concerning the setting up of a college here at New Haven, which, if attained, will in all likelihood prove very beneficial to this place; but now it is only propounded to know the town's mind, and whether they are willing to further the work by bearing a meet proportion of charge, if the jurisdiction, upon the proposal thereof, shall see cause to carry it on. No man objected, but all seemed willing, provided that the pay which we can raise here, will do it." The next year, at a general court May 21, 1655, the subject was "revived; and in some respects this seems to be a season, some disturbance being at present at the college in the Bay,1 and it is now in-

1 The disturbance at Harvard College alluded to was occasioned by the outburst of President Dunster's long pent-up conviction that infant baptism was unscriptural. Probably some of the leading men at New Haven were aware, when in the preceding year they made a motion for setting up a college, that a storm was brewing at Cambridge; for about three weeks previously the General Court of Massachusetts had commended to the " pious consideration and special care of the officers of the college and the selectmen of the several towns, not to permit or suffer any such to be continued in the office or place of teaching, educating, or instructing of youth or child in the college or schools, that have manifested themselves unsound in the faith or scandalous in their lives, and not giving due satisfaction according to the rales of Christ; forasmuch as it greatly concerns the welfare of the country that the youth thereof be educated not only in good literature, but sound doctrine." Mr. Davenport and Mr. Hooke knew what this meant as well as President Dunster himself, who resigned in the following month. When it was publicly mentioned in town meeting at New Haven that there had been some disturbance in the college at the Bay, the college had been eleven months without a president

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tended to be propounded to the General Court: therefore this town may declare what they will do by way of encouragement for the same; and it would be well if they herein give a good example to the other towns in the jurisdiction, being free in so good a work." Mr. Davenport and Mr. Hooke were both present upon this occasion, and " spake much to encourage the work;" and a committee was appointed " to go to the several planters in this town, and take from them what they will freely give to this work." On the 3Oth of the same month, at a general court for the jurisdiction: -

" The governor remembered the court of some purposes which have formerly been to set up a college at New Haven; and informed them that now again the motion is renewed, and, that the deputies might be prepared to speak to it, letters were sent to the plantations to inform them that it would now be propounded. He acquainted them also that New Haven has in a free way of contribution raised above three hundred pounds to, encourage the work, and now desired to know what the other towns will do. The magistrate and deputies from Milford declared, that, if the work might comfortably be carried on, their town would give one hundred pounds ; but those from the other towns seemed not prepared, as not having taken a right course, and therefore desired further time to speak with their towns again, and take the same course New Haven hath done, and they will then return answer: and for a committee to receive these accounts, and upon receipt of them to consider whether it be meet to carry on the work, and how; and whatever considerations and conclusions may be meet for the furtherance of it; they agree that each town choose some whom they will entrust therein, and send them to New Haven upon Tuesday come fortnight, which will be the igth of June, to meet in the afternoon, by whom also they promise to send the account, what their several towns will raise for the work; the major part of which committee meeting, and the major part of them agreeing, shall conclude what shall be done in this business."

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The time was not ripe, however, for setting up a college; and these endeavors produced no substantial fruit except a bequest in aid of the intended college, which Mr. Hopkins made at the solicitation of Mr. Davenport. In May, 1659, however, Mr. Hopkins being now deceased, the General Court of the jurisdiction took action for establishing a grammar school for the colony, being probably stimulated thereto by the desire to secure Mr. Hopkins's bequest for such an institution of learning as it was possible for them to establish, since they could not compass a college. The order of the Court reads as follows; viz.: -

"The Court looking upon it as their great duty to establish some course (that, through the blessing of God), learning may be promoted in the jurisdiction as a means for the fitting of instruments for public service in church and commonwealth, did order that £40 a year shall be paid by the treasurer for the furtherance of a grammar school for the use of the inhabitants of the jurisdiction, and that £8 more shall be disbursed by him for the procuring of books of Mr. Blinman,1 such as shall be approved by Mr. Davenport and Mr. Pierson* as suitable for this work. The appointing of the place where this school shall be settled, the per- ' son or persons to be employed, the time of beginning, &c., is referred to the governor, deputy-governor, the magistrates, and ministers settled in the jurisdiction, or so many of them as upon due notice shall meet to consider of this matter. The deputy-governor, with the deputies of Guilford, did propound Mr. Whit-

1 Rev. Richard Blinman, " after he had labored about ten years in the ministry at New London, removed to New Haven in 1658. After a short stay in that town, he took shipping, and returned to England."-Trum-htll, vol. i., chap. 13. The New Haven town records show that he assisted Mr. Davenport in the work of the ministry after Mr. Hooke left and before Mr. Street came.

* Rev. Abraham Pierson of Branford.

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field!s house * freely for the furtherance of this work, who did also declare that they judged it reasonable that if the said school should be settled in any other place by those who are appointed to determine this question, that the like allowance should be made by that plantation where it falls, answerable to what by Guilford is now propounded."

More than a year, however, elapsed after this order was passed before the colony school went into operation. Meantime Mr. Davenport, having agreed with the other surviving trustees of Mr. Hopkins what part of his bequest should inure to the benefit of New Haven, transferred to the court of magistrates his rights as a trustee to receive and manage this part of the bequest : -

" At a court of magistrates held at New Haven, May 28, 1660, Mr. John Davenport, pastor to the church of Christ at New Haven, delivered into the hands of the court, to be kept for the use of the magistrates and elders of this colony, as is specified in his writing to them, certain writings concerning a trust committed to himself with some others, for the disposal of an estate given by the worshipful Edward Hopkins, Esquire, deceased, for the furtherance of learning in these parts, with resignation of his power and interest therein, so far as he might with preserving in himself the power committed to him for the discharge of his trust (which is more fully and particularly expressed in the records of the General Court), which was thankfully accepted."

A few days afterward, a general court for the juris-

1 The house thus offered by Gov. Leete and the Guilford deputies is still standing near the railway-station in Guilford. Its appearance and its internal arrangements have been somewhat changed, however, by alterations made in 1868. Mr. Ralph D. Smith's description of it, as it was in 1859, may be found in this volume, in the chapter on domestic and social life, and in Palfrey's History of New England.

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diction was held at New Haven, the record of which contains the following document: -

" QUOD FELIX, FAUSTUMQUE SIT !

" On the fourth day of the fourth month, 1660, John Davenport, pastor to the church of Christ at New Haven, presented to the Honored General Court at New Haven as followeth: -

"MEMORANDUM.

" 1. That sundry years past it was concluded by the said General Court that a small college, such as the day of small things will permit, should be settled in New Haven, for the education of youth in good literature, to fit them for public services in church and commonwealth, as it will appear in the public records.

" 2. Hereupon the said John Davenport wrote unto our honored friend, Edward Hopkins, Esq., then living in London, the result of those consultations; in answer whereunto the said Edward Hop- kins wrote unto the said John Davenport a letter, dated the thirtieth of the second month, called April, 1656, beginning with these words: ' Most dear sir, the long-continued respects I have re ceived from you, but especially the speakings of the Lord to my heart by you, have put me under deep obligation to love and a return of thanks beyond what I ever have or can express,' &c. Then after other passages (which, being secrets, hinder me from showing his letter), he added a declaration of his purpose in ref erence to the college about which I wrote unto him: ' That which the Lord hath given me in those parts, I ever designed the great est part of it for the furtherance of the work of Christ in those ends of the earth; and, if I understand that a college is begun and like to be carried on at New Haven for the good of posterity, I shall give some encouragement thereunto.' These are the very words of his letter, but

, " 3. Before Mr. Hopkins could return an answer to my next letter, it pleased God to finish his days in this world. Therefore, by his last will and testament (as the copy thereof transcribed and attested by Mr. Thomas Yale doth show), he committed the whole trust of disposing of his estate in these countries,-after some personal legacies were paid out,-unto the public uses mentioned,

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and bequeathed it to our late honored governor, Theophilus Eaton, Esq., his father-in-law, and to the aforesaid John Davenport, and joined with them in the same trust Capt. John Cullick and Mr. William Goodwin.

"4. It having pleased the Most High to afflict this colony greatly by taking from it to himself our former ever-honored governor, Mr. Eaton, the surviving trustees and legatees met together to consider what course they should take for the discharge of their trust, and agreed that each of them should have an inventory of the aforesaid testator's estate in New England, in houses and goods and lands (which were prized by some in Hartford intrusted by Capt. Cullick and Mr. Goodwin), and in debts, for the gather-ing-in whereof some attorneys were constituted, empowered, and employed, by the three surviving trustees, as the writing in the magistrates' hands will show.

"5. Afterward at another meeting of the said trustees, they considering that by the will of the dead they are joined together in one common trust, agreed to act with mutual consent in performance thereof, and considering that by the will of the testator two of New Haven were joined with two of Hartford, and that Mr. Hopkins had declared his purpose to further the college intended at New Haven, they agreed that one-half of that estate which should be gathered in, should be paid unto Mr. Davenport for New Haven; the other half to Capt. Cullick and Mr. Goodwin, to be improved for the uses and ends forenoted, where they should have power to perform their trust; which, because they could not expect to have at Hartford, they concluded would be best done by them in that new plantation unto which sundry of Hartford were to remove and were now gone$ yet they agreed that out of the whole, an £100 should be given to the college at Cambridge in the Bay, the estate being £1,000, as Capt. Cullick believed it would be, which we now see cause to doubt, by reason of the sequestrations laid upon that estate and still continued by the General Court at Hartford, whereupon some refuse to pay their debts, and others forsake the purchases they had made, to their great hinderance of performing the will of the deceased according to the trust committed to them, and to the endamagement of the estate.

" 6. The said John Davenport acquainted the other two trustees

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with his purpose to interest the honored magistrates and elders of this colony in the disposal of that part of the estate that was, by their agreement, to be paid thereunto, for promoting the college-work in a gradual way, for the education of youth in good literature, so far as he might with preserving in himself the power committed to him for the discharge of his trust. They consented thereunto. Accordingly on the election day, it being the thirtieth day of the third month, he delivered up into the hands of the honored governor and magistrates, the writings that concern this business (viz., the copy of Mr. Hopkins's last will and testament, and the inventory of his estate in New England, and the appraisement of his goods, and the writings signed by the surviving trustees for their attorneys, and some letters between the other trustees and himself), adding also his desire of some particulars for the well performing of the trust, as followeth: -

"I. He desireth of New Haven Town, First, That the_rent of the oyster-shell field, formerly separated and reserved for the use and benefit of a college, be paid from this time forward toward the making of some stock for disbursement of necessary charges towards the college till it be set up, and afterward to continue for a yearly rent as belonging to it, under the name and title of college land.

" Secondly, That if no place can be found more convenient, Mrs. Eldred's lot be given for the use of the college and of the colony grammar school, if it be in this town, else only for the college.

" Thirdly, That parents will keep such of their sons constantly to learning in the schools whom they intend to train up for public serviceableness, and that all their sons may learn, at the least, to write and cast up accounts competently, and may make some entrance into the Latin tongue. " Fourthly, That if the colony settle Lb40 per annum for a common school, and shall add an ^100 to be paid toward the building or buying of a school-house and library in this town, seeing thereby this town will be freed from the charges which they have been at hitherto to maintain a town school, they would consider what part of their former salary may be still continued for future supplies toward a stock for necessary expenses about the college or school.

"II. He humbly desireth the honored General Court of the

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colony of New Haven, First, That the £40 per annum formerly agreed upon to be paid by the several plantations for a common grammar school be now settled in one of the plantations, which they shall judge fittest, and that a school-master may forthwith be provided to teach the three languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, so far as shall be necessary to prepare them for the college, and that, if it can be accomplished, that such a school-master be settled by the end of this summer or the beginning of winter, the payments from the several plantations may begin from this time.

" Secondly, That, if the common school be settled in this town, the honored governor, magistrates, elders, and deputies would solemnly and together visit the grammar school, once every year at the court for elections, to examine the scholars' proficiency in learning.

" Thirdly, That for the payments to be made by the plantations for the school, or out of Mr. Hopkins's estate toward the college, one be chosen by themselves, under the name and title of steward or receiver for the school and college, to whom such payments may be made, with full pbwer given him by the court to demand what is due and to prosecute in case of neglect, and to give acquittances in case of due payments received, and to give his account yearly to the court, and to dispose of what he receiveth in such provisions as cannot be well kept, in the best way for the aforesaid uses, according to advice.

"Fourthly, That unto that end a committee of church-members be chosen, to meet together and consult and advise in emergent, difficult cases, that may concern the school or college, and which cannot be well delayed till the meeting of the General Court, the governor being always the chief of that committee.

" Fifthly, The said John Davenport desireth that while it may please God to continue his life and abode in this place (to the end that he may the better perform his trust in reference to the college), he be always consulted in difficult cases, and have the power of a negative vote, to hinder any thing frtrni being acted which he shall prove by good reason to be prejutacial to the true intend-ment of the testator, and to the true end this work.

" Sixthly, That certain orders be speedily made for the school, and, when the college shall proceed, for it also, that the education

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of youth may be carried on suitably to Christ's ends, by the counsel of the teaching elders in this colony; and that what they shall conclude with consent, being approved by the honored magistrates, be ratified by the General Court.

" Seventhly, Because it is requisite that the writings which concern Mr. Hopkins's estate be safely kept, in order thereunto the said John Davenport desireth that a convenient chest be made, with two locks and two keys, and be placed in the house of the governor or of the steward, in some safe room, till a more public place (as a library or the like) may be prepared, and that one key be in the hand of the governor, the other in the steward's hand; that in this chest all the writings now delivered by him to the magistrates may be kept, and all other bills, bonds, acquittances, orders, or whatsoever writings that may concern this business, be put and kept there; and that some place may be agreed on where the steward or receiver may lay up such provisions as may be paid in, till they may be disposed of for the good of the school or college.

"Eighthly, Because our sight is narrow and weak in viewing and discerning the co'mpass of things that are before us, much more in foreseeing future contingencies, he further craveth liberty for himself and other elders of this colony to propound to the honored governor and magistrates what hereafter may be found to be con-ducible to the well carrying on of this trust according to the ends proposed, and that such proposals may be added Unto these, under the name and title of useful additional and confirmed by the General Court. "Lastly, He hopeth he shall not need to add what he expressed by word of mouth, that the honored General Court will not suffer this gift to be lost from the colony, but, as it becometh Fathers of the Commonwealth, will use all good endeavors to get it into their hands, and to assert their right in it for the common good, that posterity may reap the good fruit of their labors and wisdom and faithfulness, and that Jesus Christ may have the service and honor of such provision made for his people, in whom I rest.

"To these motions I desire that the answer of the Court, together with this writing, may be kept among the records for the school and college.

john davenport."

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To this communication the General Court responded as follows: -

" The Court being deeply sensible of the small progress or proficiency in learning that hath yet been accomplished in the way of more particular town schools of later years in this colony, and of the great difficulty and charge to make pay, &c., for the maintaining children at the schools or college in the Bay, and that notwithstanding what this Court did order last year or formerly, nothing hath yet been done to attain the ends desired, upon which considerations and other like, this Court for further encouragement of this work doth now order that, over and above the Lb40 per annum, granted the 'last year for the end then declared, Lb100 stock shall be duly paid in from the jurisdiction treasury, according to the manner and times agreed and expressed in the court records, giving and granting that special respect to our brethren at New Haven, to be first in embracing or refusing the court's encouragement or provision for a school, whether to be settled at New Haven town or not; but if they shall refuse, Milford is to have the next choice, then Guilford, and so in order every other town on the main within the jurisdiction have their liberty to accept or refuse the court's tender; yet it is most desired of all that New Haven would accept the business, as being a place most probable to advantage the well carrying on of the school for the ends sought after and endeavored after thereby; but the college after spoken of is affixed to New Haven, if the Lord shall succeed that undertaking. It is further agreed that all and every plantation who have any mind to accept the propositions about the school, shall prepare and send in their answer unto the committee chosen of all the magistrates and settled elders of this jurisdiction, to order, regulate, and dispose all matters concerning the school (as the providing instruments and well carrying on of the business) from time to time as they shall judge best, before the 24th of June instant, that so if any plantation do accept, the committee may put forth their endeavors to settle the business; but if all refuse, then it must be suspended until another meeting of this General Court

"And for further encouragement of learning and the good of posterity in that way, Mr. John Davenport, pastor of the Church

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of Christ, at New Haven, presented a writing, as before appears, whereby and wherewith he delivered up all his power and interest as a trustee by Mr. Hopkins, for recovering and bestowing of all that legacy given by him for the end of furtherance to the settlement of a college at New Haven; he also propounded therewith, what he apprehends hath been granted and set apart by the town of New Haven for the same end, with a request that matters thereabouts might be ordered and carried on according to such propositions as are therein set down. All which the General Court took thankfully, both from the donors and Mr. Davenport, and accepted the trust, and" shall endeavor by God's help to get in the said estate"and improve it to the end it was given for.

"By way of further answer to what was propounded by Mr. Davenport in his writing presented, the Court declared that it was their desire that the colony school may begin at the time propounded, and to that end desire that endeavors may be put forth by the committee of magistrates and settled elders formerly appointed, for the providing a school-master, &c., to whom also they leave it to appoint a steward or receiver, which steward or receiver they empower as is propounded, and to settle a committee from among themselves to issue emergent cases, and to take order that a chest be provided wherein the writings may be laid up that concern this business. The Court further declared that they do invest Mr. Davenport with the power o£ a negative vote, for the reason and in the cases according to the terms in his writing specified, and that they shall be ready to confirm such orders as shall be presented, which in the judgment of the Court shall be conducible to the main end intended.

"It is ordered for encouragement of such as shall diligently and constantly, to the satisfaction of the civil authority in each plantation, apply themselves to due use of means for the attainment of learning, which may fit them for public service, that they shall be freed from payment of rates with respect to their persons; provided that if any such shall leave off, or not constantly attend those studies, they shall then be liable to pay rates in all respects as other men are.

" It is ordered that if the colony school shall begin any time within the first half year from this court of election, that £40 shall

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be paid by the treasurer for this year, and if it shall begin at any time before the election next, that ^20 shall be paid by the treasurer upon that account.

" To the printed law'concerning the education of children, it is now added, that the sons of all the inhabitants within this jurisdiction shall, under the same penalty, be learned to write a legible hand, so soon as they are capable of it."

The next record concerning the colony school which we find, was made by the town of New Haven, and is as follows: -

"1660, June 21 st

"The orders made by the General Court in May last, also a writing of Mr. Davenport by him then delivered in to the General Court concerning a school and college, were both read; after which the governor declared that formerly the Court had taken care that schools of learning might be settled in the several plantations, but finding that means did not attain the end propounded, they have now, as by their order read appears, provided for the settling of a colony school (for teaching of Latin, Greek and Hebrew), in some one of the plantations, which they first tender to New Haven to accept if they shall see cause so to do upon the encouragement they have agreed upon; viz., ;£loo stock for the providing a house for the master to live in and a school-house, and £40 per annum. Sergeant Jeffrey desired that the town [ ] the compass of the business. To which it was answered that it appears by the order read, that the jurisdiction allows £ioo stock and £40 per annum for the salary; but what it comes to more, that town which accepts their tender must make up. After the business had been debated and considered, it was, by the vote of the town, generally declared, that upon the jurisdiction's encouragement, the school shall be settled at New Haven. To which end, Mr. Gilbert, Lieutenant Nash, Sergeant Munson, and John Cooper were appointed a committee to .provide a house for the school-master and a school-house, and therein to use their best discretion whether to buy or build, so as may answer the end, yet with as good husbandry for the town as may be."

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At the same court " it was also by the governor propounded concerning Oyster-shell Field, that as it hath been from the first intended (as hath been often said) for the use of a college, that it might now be actually set apart for that use, as Mr. Davenport in his writing hath desired, which was also debated; and the town generally showed their willingness, that if it shall please God in his providence so to order it that a college be settled and set up at New Haven, that then the Oyster-shell Field shall be set apart for that use. But to do it before that was not granted."

From the colony records we extract the following: -

"At a meeting of the committee for the school, June 28th, 1660, there were present the governor,1 the deputy-governor,2 Mr. Treat, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Street. It was agreed that Mr. Peck, now at Guilford, should be school-master, and that it should begin in October next, when his half-year expires there; he is to keep the school, to teach the scholars Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and fit them for the college ; and for the salary, he knows the allowance from the colony is £40 a. year; and for further treaties, they must leave it to New Haven, where the school is; and for further orders concerning the school and well carrying it on, the elders will consider of some against the court of magistrates in October next, when things, as there is cause; may be further considered. Mr. Crane and Mr. Pierson came after the business was concluded, and what is above written was read to them, and they fully approved of it; and after that, being read to Mr. Gilbert, he approved of it also."

At a town meeting in New Haven, July 25 of the same year, the governor communicated the action of the committee as above, and "further informed that upon th& eleventh of July, Mr. Peck coming over him-

1 Newman. * Leete.

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self, with such of the court and townsmen as could be got together, had a treaty with him, who propounded that unto the £40 per annum allowed by the jurisdiction, £10 per year, with a comfortable house for his dwelling, and a school-house, and the benefit of such scholars as are not of the jurisdiction, and such part of the accommodations belonging to the house lately purchased of Mr. Kitchel (at a moderate price), as he shall desire, with some liberty of commonage, all which the town now consented to, and by vote determined to allow to Mr. Peck; which the governor now promised to give him information of."

According to the arrangement thus made, the colony school went into operation in the autumn of 1660. At the General Court held in May of the following year, "there were sundry propositions presented by Mr. Peck, school-master, to this court, as followeth : -

"First, That the master shall be assisted with the power and counsel of any of the honored magistrates or reverend elders, as he finds need, or the case may require. 2. That rectores schola be now appointed and established. 3. What is that the jurisdiction expects from the master ? Whether any thing besides instruction in the languages and oratory? 4. That two indifferent men be appointed to prove and send to the master such scholars as be fitted for his tuition. 5. That two men be appointed to take care of the school, ,to repair and supply necessaries, as the case may require. 6. Whether the master shall have liberty to be at neighbors' meetings once every week ? 7. Whether it may not be permitted that the school may begin but at eight of the clock all the winter half-year ? 8. That the master shall have liberty to use any books that do or shall belong to the school. 9. That the master shall have liberty to receive into and instruct in the school, scholars sent from other places out of this jurisdiction, and that he shall receive the benefit of them, over and above what the jurisdiction doth pay

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him. 10. That the master may have a settled habitation, not at his own charge, n. That he shall have a week's vacation in the year to improve, as the case may require. 12. That his person and estate shall be rate-free in every plantation of this jurisdiction.

13. That half the year's payment shall be made to, and accounts cleared with, the master, within the compass of every half year.

14. That £40 per annum be paid to the school-master by the jurisdiction treasurer, and that £10 per annum be paid to him by New Haven treasurer.

15. That the major part of the foresaid payments shall be made to the school-master in these particulars as followeth; viz., 30 bushels of wheat, 2 barrels of pork, and 2 barrels of beef, 40 bushels of Indian corn, 30 bushels of pease, 2 firkins of butter, 100 pounds of flax, 30 bushels of oats. Lastly, That the honored Court would be pleased to consider of and settle these things this court time, and to confirm the consequent of them, the want of which things, especially some of them, doth hold the master under discouragement and unsettlement; yet these things being suitably considered and confirmed, if it please the honored Court further to improve him who at present is school-master, although unworthy of any such respect, and weak for such a work, yet his real intention is to give up himself to the work of a grammar school, as it shall please God to give opportunity and assistance.

" The Court, considering of these things, did grant as followeth; viz., to the second, they did desire and appoint Mr. John Davenport, sen., Mr. Street, and Mr. Pierson, to take that care and trust upon them; to the third, they declared that besides that which he expressed, they expected he would teach them to write so far as was necessary to his work; to the fourth, they declared that they left it to those before mentioned; to the eighth, they .declared that he should have the use of those books, provided a list of them be taken; the ninth they left to the committee for the school; and the rest they granted in general, except the pork and butter, and for that they did order that he should have one barrel of pork and one firkin of butter, provided by the jurisdiction treasurer, though it be with some loss to the jurisdiction, and that he should have wheat for the other barrel of pork. This being done, Mr. Peck seemed to be very well satisfied."

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The school thus established continued only about two years, being discontinued partly on account of the paucity of scholars, and partly on account of the expense of litigation with Connecticut concerning her assumption of title to the territory of New Haven, which threatened to exhaust the treasury. The vote to discontinue is thus recorded: -

" At a General Court held at New Haven, for the jurisdiction, Nov. 5, 1662, it was propounded as a thing left to be issued at the next General Court after May last, by the committee for the school, whether they would continue the colony school or lay it down. The business being debated, it came to this conclusion, that, considering the distraction of the time, that the end is not attained for which it was settled no way proportionable to the charges expended, and that the colony is in expectation of unavoidable necessary charges to be expended, did conclude to lay it down, and the charges to cease when this half-year is up at the end of this month."

How far the school came short of attaining the end for which it was established, may be seen in the light of some remarks made by Mr. Davenport in a town meeting held the preceding August. " Mr. Davenport further propounded to the town something about the colony school, and informed them that the committee for the school made it a great objection against the keeping of it up, that this town did not send scholars to it, only five or six; now, therefore, if you would not have that benefit taken away, you should send your children to it constantly, and not take them off so often; and further said that he was in the school, and it grieved him to see how few scholars were there."

The colony school being discontinued, the town of

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New Haven negotiated with George Pardee, one of their own people, to teach the children " English, and to carry them on in Latin so far as he could. The business was debated, and some expressed themselves to this purpose, that it is scarce known in any place to have a free school for teaching English and writing, but yet showed themselves willing to have something allowed by the public, and the rest by the parents and masters of such that went to school; and in the issue twenty pounds was propounded and put to vote, and by vote concluded to be allowed to George Pardee for this year out of the town treasury, and the rest to be paid by those that sent scholars to the school, as he and they could agree. This, George Pardee agreed to, to make trial of for one year. He was also advised to be careful to instruct the youth in point of manners, there being a great fault in that respect, as some expressed."

Our history of schools in the colony of New Haven might here come to a conclusion, for, when the year expired for which Mr. Pardee was engaged, the colony of New Haven had become absorbed into the colony of Connecticut, and thus lost not only its name but its existence as a jurisdiction.

But it will not be deemed improper to add that within two years after the union, the town of New Haven, stimulated by its desire to secure to itself that part of Gov. Hopkins's bequest which was in the power of .Mr. Davenport, established a "grammar or collegiate school," and invited Mr. Samuel Street to be the schoolmaster. The town appropriated .£30 per annum, and the Hopkins estate in the hands of Mr. Davenport yielded by this time £10 more. A few months after-

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ward, Mr. Davenport came into the town meeting, and " desired to speak something concerning the school; and first propounded to the town whether they would send their children to the school, to be taught for the fitting them for the service of God in church and commonwealth. If they would, then he said that the grant of that part of Mr. Hopkins' estate formerly made to this town stands good; but if not, then it is void, because it attains not the end of the donor. Therefore he desired they would express themselves. Upon which Roger Ailing declared his purpose of bringing up one of his sons to learning; also Henry Glover, one of William Russel's; John Winston; Mr. Hodson; Thomas Trowbridge; David Atwater; Thomas Mix; and Mr. Augur said that he intended to send for a kinsman from England. Mr. Samuel Street declared that there were eight at present in Latin, and three more would come in in summer, and two more before next winter. Upon which Mr. Davenport seemed to be satisfied, but yet declared that he must always reserve a negative voice, that nothing be done contrary to the true intent of the donor, and that it be improved only for that use; and therefore, while it can be so improved here, it shall be settled here; but if New Haven will neglect their own good herein, he must improve it otherwhere unto that end that may answer the will of the dead."

As this declaration of Mr. Davenport was made in February, 1668, and he removed to Boston some two or three months afterward, having in the previous September received a call to the pastorate of the first church there, it may be inferred that the people of New Haven had some reason at that time to apprehend that they

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might lose the benefit of the Hopkins bequest. On the 18th of April, however, Mr. Davenport executed a deed of trust, in which he conveyed unto " William Jones, assistant of the colony of Connecticut, the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Street, teacher of the church of Christ at New Haven, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. John Davenport, jun., and James Bishop, commissioned magistrates, Deacons William Peck and Roger Ailing, and to their successors," his interest in the Hopkins bequest; reserving " full power of a negative voice, while it shall please God to continue my living and abiding in this country or any part of it;" appending the condition that the rent of Oyster-shell Field and of Mrs. Eldred's lot should be to the use of the school; and declaring null and void his former conveyance for the encouragement of a " colony school," on the ground that the colony school had been dissolved by the act of the General Court of the colony of New Haven.1

The Hopkins Grammar School thus established, has, with some intermissions which occurred early in its history, afforded to the boys of New Haven from that time to the present day, opportunity " to be taught for the fitting them for the service of God in church and commonwealth." It opens its doors so indiscriminately to the children of all classes of people, Christian, Jewish, and pagan, that the following action of the town may perhaps awaken the risibles of the reader:

- "At a town meeting in New Haven, Dec. 9, 1728, Voted, That the land lying in the governor's quarter in New Haven called the Oyster-shell Field be put into the hand of the school committee in New Haven commonly known by the name of Hopkins Committee, as they now be or hereafter shall be, according to their

1 See Appendix V.

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constitution or custom, by tfeem to be improved for the upholding and. maintaining a grammar school in the first parish in.this town, for the educating of children of Congregational or Presbyterian parents only, and no other use whatsoever forever hereafter; and if it shall hereafter be thought most advantageous to make sale of the lands commonly called the Oyster-shell Field as aforesaid, and the major part of proprietors in this town shall agree thereto, the money thereby produced shall be past into the hands of said committee to be improved as aforesaid, and to no other use whatsoever."

CHAPTER XIV.

MILITARY AFFAIRS.

EACH of the colonies of New England had its military chieftain. A captain was as necessary as a magistrate. Miles Standish came with the pilgrims from Leyden to Plymouth; but, so far as appears, he came as a soldier rather than as a Separatist. He was a man of pure morals, but never identified himself with the church at Plymouth. It was not required in that colony, as it was in Massachusetts and in New Haven, that military officers should be church-members. Of the expedition sent by Massachusetts against the Pe-quots in 1636, John Endicott was chief captain; John Underbill, Nathanael Turner, and William Jenningson, were subordinate captains; and there were other-inferior officers. As the number of privates did not exceed one hundred in number, Underbill, in his narrative of the expedition, apologizes for the unusual proportion of officers. " I would not have the world wonder at the great number of commanders to so few men, but know that the Indians' fight far differs from the Christian practice, for they most commonly divide themselves into small bodies ; so that we are forced to neglect our usual way, and to subdivide our divisions to answer theirs, and not linking it any disparagement to any captain

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to go forth against an enemy with a squadron of men, taking the ground from the old and ancient, practice when they chose captains of hundreds and captains of thousands, captains of fifties And captains of tens. We conceive a captain signifieth the chief in way of command of any body committed to his charge for the time being; whether of more or less, it makes no matter in power, though in honor it does."

Eaton and Davenport not knowing, when they left England, that they should settle afar from their friends in Massachusetts, had not been careful to bring with them a military chief. During the winter they spent at-the Bay they found a valuable accession to their company in Nathanael Turner, one of the three captains of the first Pequot expedition who were subordinate only to Endicott. Having lost his house at Lynn (then called Sagus) by fire, in January, 1637, "with all that was in it save the persons," he was free to listen to proposals from a company, which, with large resources, proposed to settle at Quinnipiac. He listened, and was persuaded to take part in the responsibilities and rewards of the undertaking. Capt. Turner was invested with military command at Quinnipiac during the time of the provisional authority which preceded the permanent settlement of civil affairs in the plantation ; for, on the 25th of November, 1639, only thirty days after the organization of the court, and, so far as appears on the record, before any appointment of military officers had been made, it was " ordered that every one that bears arms shall be completely furnished with arms; viz., a musket, a sword, bandoleers, a rest, a pound of powder, twenty bullets fitted to their musket, or four

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pounds of pistol-shot or swan-shot at least, and be ready to show them in the market-place upon Monday, the i6th of this (sic) month, before Capt. Turner and Lieut. Seeley, under the penalty of twenty shillings fine for every default or absence."

On the first day of September following, "Mr. Turner was chosen captain to have the command and ordering of all martial affairs of this plantation, as setting and ordering of watches, exercising and training of soldiers, and whatsoever of like nature appertaining to his office ; all which he is to do with all faithfulness and diligence, and, be ready at all times to do whatsoever service the occasions of the town may require." This seems to have been a permanent appointment; for he continued in office, till, having determined to visit the mother country, he had embarked in Lamberton's vessel. Then "the governor propounded whether the military affairs of the town may be comfortably carried on without a captain, or whether it were not convenient to choose a captain instead of Capt. Turner, not knowing when he will return. After some debate, Mr. Malbon was chosen captain, with liberty to resign his place to Capt. Turner at his return."

Robert Seeley, above mentioned as lieutenant before "\ the adoption of the fundamental agreement, was for- ] mally elected to that office Aug. 6, 1642. In 1649 he asked the town to excuse him from further service, but the Court was unwilling to do so; and "it was propounded that the men in the town would underwrite what they would give toward the maintenance of Lieut. Seeley in his place." Before the settlement of New Haven, Seeley had been the lieutenant of Capt. Mason

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in the expedition from Connecticut against the Pe quots in 1637. He had, passed Quinnipiac in the chase of the Pequots westward, and, unless Turner was with him in that pursuit, had been the first of those who soon afterward settled there as planters to set his eyes on its hills1 and meadows, its creeks, rivers, and fair haven.

Soon after the inspection of arms appointed in November, 1639, it was ordered that a similar inspection should take place quarterly; and it was defined that " every one that beareth arms" meant " every male from sixteen to sixty years of age, who shall dwell or sojourn wfthin this plantation or any part of the bounds and limits of it for a month together." The number of persons thus made subject to military duty was in 1642 not less than two hundred and seventeen, as there were then thirty-one watches, each consisting of seven men. The whole company was divided into four squadrons, each commanded by a sergeant; and the squadrons being trained in succession, one on Saturday of each week for four weeks, there was every fifth week a general training of the whole company, which occurred always on Monday. The squadron-training was omitted that week. At a later date the number of general trainings was reduced to six in a year; and after the organization, in 1645, of a volunteer artillery company, whose members were exempt from squadron-training, the four squadrons were exercised two at once, and only required to train each six times a year.

Besides the officers already mentioned, " the trained band " had an ensign, four sergeants, and four corporals. In 1642 the ensign, or antient as he was usually styled,

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was Francis Newman, afterward governor of the jurisdiction. The sergeants contemporary with him were William Andrews, Thomas Munson, John Clark, and Thomas Jeffrey; and the corporals were Thomas Kim-berley, John Moss, John Nash, and Samuel Whitehead.

Fines for absence and late-coming, whether on days of general training or on squadron days, were given up to the military officers and company for their encouragement, " to be disposed in powder and shot, that they may set up marks to shoot at, or may furnish themselves for their military exercises." A portion of Oyster-shell Field was set apart for "a shooting-place;" and here, on training-days, the soldiers were exercised in target practice.

The arms which the militia were required to show were, in the revision of the orders, specified as " a good serviceable gun, a good sword, bandoleers, a rest, all to be allowed by the military officers ; one pound of good gunpowder, four pounds of bullets, either fitted for his gun, or pistol bullets, with four fathom of match fit for service with every matchlock, and four or five good flints fitted for every firelock piece, all in good order$ and ready for any sudden occasion, service, or view." The order makes it indifferent whether the gun be a matchlock or a firelocks only if the soldier have a firelock, he must be furnished with a sufficiency of flints, and if his gun is a matchlock, he must have a sufficiency of match. Any musket of the seventeenth century would seem to us ludicrously inferior to those with which modern soldiers are provided; but even the matchlock gave its possessor, so long as he had a rest and a match, immense superiority over an enemy destitute of fire-arms

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The muskets of that day had no bayonet; but soldiers were sometimes exercised in the use of the pike, a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft pointed with steel. New Haven, while requiring each soldier to be equipped with a musket at his own cost, provided pikes at the public expense.

" It is ordered that a convenient company and number of pikes be provided at the town's charge, that the military and artillery companies may be trained and exercised in the use of them, but no man hereby to be freed from providing, and at all times continuing furnished, with all other arms, powder, and shot, as before expressed ; and that a chest be made in some convenient place in the meeting-house, to keep the said pikes from warping or other hurt or decay. And Thomas Munson and the rest of the sergeants undertool to have it done without delay; and Mr. Pearce was appointed to give out and lay up the pikes from time to time, that they receive no damage betwixt times of service ; and in consideration hereof and of some bodily weakness, he is at present freed from training, and allowed to provide a man to watch for him."

In respect to defensive armor, the following order gives information: " It is ordered that When canvas and cotton-wool may conveniently be had, due notice and warning shall be given; and then every family within the plantation shall accordingly provide and after continue, furnished with a coat well made, and so quilted with cotton-wool as may be fit for service, and a comfortable defence against Indian arrows; and the tailors about the town shall consider and advise how to make them, and take care that they be done without unnecessary delay."

Capt. Turner was by virtue of his office chief captain of the watch, appointing the watch-masters and designating the watchmen to be subject to each, though

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not without the approval of the magistrates. "It is ordered that a constant and strict watch shall be kept every night in this plantation from the first of March to the last of October every year ordinarily, leaving extraordinary cases, either of mildness or of sharpness of weather or times of danger, to the governor and magistrates, who may remit or continue the watch longer, or increase and order them as seasons and occasions may require. But in the ordinary course the watch is every night to consist of one intrusted as master of the watch (who is diligently to attend and observe all the orders made by this court for the watch while they remain in force), and of six other watchmen. This watch-master is to be appointed yearly, and the six watchmen to be sorted, as may be most convenient in respect of their dwellings, by the captain, with approbation of the magistrates. But if by death, remove, or any other occasion, after the watches are settled in their course for the year, a breach be made, and so cause of an alteration, the captain shall with all convenient speed order and settle them again, so as may be most convenient for the town, and shall give seasonable warning to all the watch-masters whom it con-cerneth, that the service may go on without interruption or disorder."

What the orders for the watch were, may be learned from the following record: " At a court holden the 3d of June, 1640, all the masters of the watches received their charge and orders as followeth: -

" 1 The drummer is to beat -the drum at the going down of the sun.

"2. The master of the watch is to be at the court of guard

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within half an hour after the setting of the sun, with his arms complete.

"3. All the watchmen are to be there within an hour after the1 setting of the sun, with their arms complete and their guns ready charged; and if any of them come after the time appointed, or be defective in their arms, they are to pay one shilling fine ; for total absence five shillings fine. And if the master of the watch transgress, either in late coming, defectiveness in arms, or total absence, his fine is to be double to the watchmen's_ fine in like case.

" 4. The master of the watch is to set the watch an hour after sunset, dividing the night into three watches, sending forth two and two together to walk their turns, as well without the town as within the town and the suburbs also, and to bring to the court of guard any person or persons whom they shall find disorderly or in a suspicious manner within doors or without, whether English or Indians, or any other strangers whatsoever, and keep them there safe uqtil the morning, and then bring them before one of the magistrates. If the watchmen in any part of their watch see any apparent common danger which they cannot otherwise prevent or stop, then they are to make an alarm by discharging their two guns, which are" to be answered by him that stands at the door to keep sentinel, and that also seconded by beating of the drum. And if the danger be by fire, then with the alarm the watchmen are-to cry fire, fire. And if it be by the discovery of an enemy, then they are to cry arm, arm, all the town over, yet so as to leave a guard at the court of guard.

" 5. The master is to take care that one man always stand sentinel in a sentinel posture without the watch-house, to hearken diligently after the watchmen, and see that no man come near the watch-house or court of guard; no, not those of the present watch who have been walking the round, but that he require them to stand, and call forth the master of the watch to question, proceed, or receive them, as he shall see cause. The master of the watch is also to see that none of the watchmen sleep at all, and that none of their guns remain uncharged till the watch break up (and then they may discharge), and also that no man lay aside his arms while the watch continues.

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" 6. Every master of the watch in his course is to warn both his own watch and the master of the succeeding watch, four and twenty hours before they are to watch, and not to do it slightly, but either to do it themselves or to leave the warning with some sufficient for such a trust.

"Lastly. If any master of the watch shall fail either in the warning or ordering of the watch in any of the forenamed particulars, or shall break up the watch in the morning before it have been full half an hour daylight, or neglect to complain to one of the magistrates of the neglects or defects of any of the watchmen' he is to be fined by the court according to the quality of his offence."

In 1645 "it is ordered that the market-place be forthwith cleared, and the wood carried to the watch-house, and there piled for the use and succor of the watch in cold weather, and the care of this business is committed to the four sergeants." From a record four years later it appears that this work of clearing the market-place was to be performed by the inhabitants, each working in his turn either personally or by proxy; that some trees were then still standing; and that some of the inhabitants had not yet done their share of the labor. Probably a wood-pile had been provided sufficient for " the use and succor " of the watch for four years; after the lapse of which time "it was propounded that some wood might *be provided for the watch. The sergeants were desired to inquire who hath not wrought in the market-place, that they might cut some wood out, and *in the meantime the treasurer was to provide a load."

"In 1647 it was propounded that men would clear wood and stones from their pale sides, that the watchmen in dark nights might the more safely walk the rounds without hurt thereby."

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On sabbath and lecture days and other days ordinary and extraordinary, of solemn worship, the watch was kept as at night.

" The sentinels and they that walk the round in their course, shall diligently attend their trust and duty, and shall have their matches lighted during the time of meeting, if they serve with matchlock pieces."

At first all who belonged to the watch, that is to say all persons subject to military service, were required to come every Lord's day to the meeting completely armed; and all other adult males were required to bring their swords, " no man exempted save Mr. Eaton, our pastor, Mr. James, Mr. Samuel Eaton, and the two deacons." Afterward, when the military company had been divided into four squadrons, it was ordered that one squadron in its course should come to public worship with arms complete, and "be at the meeting-house before the second drum hath left beating, their guns ready charged with a fit proportion of match for matchlocks, and flints ready fitted in their firelock pieces, and shot and powder for five or six charges at least." Such an order must have secured for each service of public worship'a guard of fifty full-armed men, and one hundred and fifty more equipped with swords. However, one of the rules of the artillery company requiring that " every one of this company purposely coming to any general or particular court, or to the ordinances at any public meeting, whether on the Lord's days, lecture days, days of solemn fasting or thanksgiving, shall carry and wear his sword by his "side," affords ground for an inference that the order requiring the whole adult male population to

MILITARY AFFAIRS. 303 wear their swords, had in 1645 been repealed or become inoperative.

The other plantations conducted their military affairs in a manner similar to that of New Haven. Indeed, the colony laws concerning military affairs so closely resemble those of the principal plantation as to suggest a common origin. They specify the arms with which every male within the jurisdiction shall be equipped; require that " every captain or chief officer chosen in any of the plantations, for the military affairs, shall from time to time be propounded to the next general court after he is chosen, for approbation and confirmation ;" enjoin inspection of arms " once in each quarter of a year at least, but oftener if there be cause;" provide that " there shall be every year at least six training days;" order that "a fourth part of the trained band in every plantation shall in their course come constantly to the worship of God every Lord's day, and (such as can come) on lecture days; to be at the meeting-house at latest before the second drum 'hath left beating, with their arms complete, their guns ready charged, their match for their matchlocks and flints ready fitted to their firelock guns, with shot and powder for at least five shots besides the charge in their guns;" and " that a strict watch be kept in the night in all the plantations within this jurisdiction." Exemption from military duty is defined as follows ; viz.: " Upon consideration of public service and other due respects, it is ordered that all magistrates within this jurisdiction, and teaching elders, shall at all times hereafter be freed, not only in their persons, but each of them shall have one son or servant, by virtue of his place or office, freed from all

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watching, warding, and training. And it is further ordered that all elders, deputies for co